Jennifer Sey, 52, has repeatedly spoken out against school shut-downs and mask mandates since the start of the pandemic
Jennifer Sey, former USA gymnast and the brand president of Levi’s has revealed she has been fired for repeatedly speaking out against draconian COVID restrictions in schools, and turned down $1million in severance pay that she was offered on the condition she wouldn’t publicly share why she had been ousted.
Sey, 52, has repeatedly spoken out against school shut-downs and mask mandates since the start of the pandemic.
On Monday, she revealed in Bari Weiss’s Substack channel Common Sense that she has left Levi’s – where she has worked for more than 20 years – because of its woke obsession.
Last March, she moved her four kids from California to Denver so that they could attend classes in person and have a ‘normal childhood’.
But she has now revealed that in the background, Levi’s staff were pressuring her not to share her views on the subject because they offended the company’s liberal preferences.
She stopped speaking out in November, after being told she was on track to become the next CEO, but says she told last month it was ‘untenable’ for her to stay because outside detractors put pressure on the company to fire her.
‘In the last month, the CEO told me that it was “untenable” for me to stay. I was offered a $1 million severance package, but I knew I’d have to sign a nondisclosure agreement about why I’d been pushed out,’ Sey wrote.
She turned the money down and yesterday finalized her departure from the company, she said.
‘The money would be very nice. But I just can’t do it. Sorry, Levi’s.
‘I never set out to be a contrarian. I don’t like to fight. I love Levi’s and its place in the American heritage as a purveyor of sturdy pants for hardworking, daring people who moved West and dreamed of gold buried in the dirt.
‘But the corporation doesn’t believe in that now.
‘It’s trapped trying to please the mob—and silencing any dissent within the organization. In this it is like so many other American companies: held hostage by intolerant ideologues who do not believe in genuine inclusion or diversity.
Sey (center) is shown in 1986 when she traveled to Moscow to compete for America in the Goodwill Games. She said she was proud to wear her Levi’s jeans, which represented the freedom of America, in the Soviet Union but that now, the company has abandoned those values
When the pandemic hit, Sey was immediately vocal in her criticism of school closures. In March last year, she moved from California to Denver so her youngest kids could go to kindergarten
Sey has four kids from two marriages. She says she was branded ‘racist’ by her Levi’s colleagues – even though two of her sons are black – for her views on school lockdowns
Sey and her husband Daniel have been vocal about school closures, vaccinating kids and forcing them to wear masks since the start of the pandemic
‘I’ll always wear my old 501s. But today I’m trading in my job at Levi’s. In return, I get to keep my voice.’
Sey says Levi’s CEO Charles Bergh told her it was ‘untenable’ for her to stay
Sey says she was branded ‘racist’ and was told she was not an ‘ally’ to the black community.
‘After all these years, the company I love has lost sight of the values that made people everywhere want to wear Levi’s.
‘Early on in the pandemic, I publicly questioned whether schools had to be shut down.
‘This didn’t seem at all controversial to me. I felt—and still do—that the draconian policies would cause the most harm to those least at risk, and the burden would fall heaviest on disadvantaged kids in public schools, who need the safety and routine of school the most.
‘In the summer of 2020, I finally got the call.
‘“You know when you speak, you speak on behalf of the company,” our head of corporate communications told me, urging me to pipe down.
‘I responded: “My title is not in my Twitter bio.
‘I’m speaking as a public school mom of four kids.”
‘But the calls kept coming. From legal. From HR. From a board member.
‘And finally, from my boss, the CEO of the company,’ she wrote in the letter on Monday.
Sey said while her colleagues were allowed to publicly attack Trump, she was admonished for going on FOX news to talk about school closures.
‘I refused to stop talking. I kept calling out hypocritical and unproven policies, I met with the mayor’s office, and eventually uprooted my entire life in California—I’d lived there for over 30 years—and so that my kindergartner could finally experience real school.
Sey’s profile is still on the Levi’s company website. The company has not yet commented on her departure or her claims
‘National media picked up on our story , and I was asked to go on Laura Ingraham’s show on Fox News. That appearance was the last straw.’
Sey said she was being primed to take over but was told by the company CEO Charles V. Bergh, she must stop talking about mandates if she wanted to assume the role.
‘In the fall of 2021, during a dinner with the CEO, I was told that I was on track to become the next CEO of Levi’s– the stock price had doubled under my leadership, and revenue had returned to pre-pandemic levels.
‘The only thing standing in my way, he said, was me. All I had to do was stop talking about the school thing.’
Sey stopped speaking out, but was continuously attacked on social media by people calling for her head.
‘Every day, a dossier of my tweets and all of my online interactions were sent to the CEO by the head of corporate communications.
‘At one meeting of the executive leadership team, the CEO made an off-hand remark that I was “acting like Donald Trump.” I felt embarrassed, and turned my camera off to collect myself,’ she wrote.
Levi’s has not commented on her departure. Her bio is still on the company’s website.
Sey lives in Denver with her husband and their four kids in a $3.8million home.
Levi’s has not commented on her departure. Her bio is still on the company’s website. Sey lives in Denver with her husband and their four kids in a $3.8million home