'Too emotionally distressed': This elite New York school will allow students to take a day off after US elections

New York: One of New York City’s elite private schools told families Thursday that “students who feel too emotionally distressed” the day after Election Day will be excused from classes, and that psychologists will be available during the week to provide counseling.

In a section of an email to members of the school’s community headed “Election Day support,” Stacey Bobo, principal of the upper school at the institution, the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, said that it “acknowledges that this may be a high-stakes and emotional time for our community.”

“No matter the election outcome,” she wrote, the school “will create space to provide students with the support they may need.”

No homework will be assigned on Election Day, the email said, and no student assessments will take place Wednesday. Excused absences will be allowed Wednesday or whatever day the election results are announced for students who feel unable to “fully engage in classes.”

Gwen Rocco, a spokesperson for the school, declined to comment on the email.

Fieldston’s upper school, in Riverdale, a leafy section of the Bronx, includes grades 9-12. The school also has two elementary schools, one of which is in Manhattan, and a middle school on the Riverdale campus. About 1,700 students attend the schools, and tuition for all grades is $65,540 a year.

The school, founded in the late 19th century on principles of social justice, was divided by infighting over pro-Palestinian student activism in the spring, leading to Joe Algrant’s resignation as head of the school in August.

In the email, the school included readings on children and the election, including one from Child Mind Institute about speaking to children about the 2024 election and helping children who feel election-related anxiety.

For some parents, the message reflected the fraught dialogue around the election, which both major political parties have described as a defining decision about the future of American democracy. To others, the school’s approach was emblematic of the inability to bridge the political divide in a moment of unparalleled polarization and suggested a tendency to coddle young people during difficult times.

John Couchman, who has two daughters in the upper school — a sophomore and a senior — said he thought the plan for the election was commendable.

“I think it’s absolutely the right decision,” said Couchman, who works in finance. “These students are very astute. I think their rights are on the line, whether it’s on election night or in five years, and they know it.”

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld, whose two sons attended Fieldston, said decisions like this one exasperated his family and led his younger son to transfer in the eighth grade to Riverdale Country School, another elite school in the Bronx.

“This is why the kids hated it,” Seinfeld said in a phone interview Thursday night. “What kind of lives have these people led that makes them think that this is the right way to handle young people? To encourage them to buckle. This is the lesson they are providing, for ungodly sums of money.”