Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s attendance at the White House event announcing Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court in late September reportedly caused tension among parents whose children also attend Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School of the Nation’s Capital, a private elementary school in the District, according to the New York Times on Tuesday.
In 2017, the President’s daughter and son-in-law enrolled their elder two children in the private elementary school. Kushner and Trump, however, withdrew from the school on last month and enrolled their children in another Jewish elementary school in the Washington suburb of Rockville, Maryland. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that they withdrew because Berman offered more in-person classes during the pandemic.
The Times reported on Tuesday that tensions between the Trumpworld figures and parents of the elite elementary school had begun well before the White House event announcing Barrett’s nomination — which preceded President Trump and those in his orbit contracting COVID-19 in early October.
Some parents at the school, who largely work as public servants and diplomats that the President baselessly accuses are part of being in the “Deep State,” lobbied to refuse the admission of the prominent Trumpworld figures.
Four parents told the Times that once their children were admitted, Trump and Kushner tended to violate the “unspoken rule of the Washington private-school world” of parents with heavy security details keeping “disruption to a minimum.”
According to the Times, one irritated parent recalled that the President’s daughter and son-in-law, as well as their entourage, would often occupy the two front rows at schoolwide events.
Three people, which include two who were present, told the Times about a birthday party Kushner attended with his children, where he requested the hosts’ Wi-Fi password so he could work in the living room.
The straw broke the backs of parents of the elite elementary school in the fall after Kushner and Trump’s appearance at the White House event announcing Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court — which White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci labeled a COVID-19 superspreader event due to the lack of mask-wearing and social distancing among attendees.
Parents grew furious at the sight, which prompted school administrators to approach the family about potential COVID-19 exposure of their children. Their youngest child who was a student at the elementary school at the time had been attending in-person classes.
One person familiar with the discussions told the Times that the couple was reluctant to answer basic questions, such as the last time their children were in close contact with the President.
Carolina Hurley, a White House spokeswoman, issued a dismissive statement to the Times.
“Unnamed sources attacking a family’s decision about what is best for their kids in the middle of a pandemic is shameful,” Hurley told the Times. “As is true for all families, schooling choices and education are deeply personal decisions and they owe no one, especially idle gossips seeking press attention, an explanation.”
