Will Smith’s School Targeted By Scientology Protests
September 3rd, 2008
A school funded by Will Smith has been targeted by anti-Scientology protest group Anonymous, over claims that the school has implemented programs designed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
Following their announcement earlier this week that they plan to target the opening night of Katie Holmes’ Broadway debut, Anonymous has released a press statement saying that they plan to protest at 7:30am at the Californian school facility.
The group states, “Anonymous will be holding a picket outside of the New Village Academy private school… specifically against the use of L. Ron Hubbard’s and The Church of Scientology’s Study Tech and Ethics programs the school is implementing.”
It adds, “This is in line with Anonymous’ global theme for September, ‘School’s Closed’. This month’s theme is raising awareness of how Scientology exploits children within Scientology itself, and is against Scientology influence in schools for non-Scientologists.”
Jacqueline Olivier, a spokesperson for the New Village Academy, has previously stated that the school is non-denominational saying, “We are a secular school. And just like all nonreligious independent schools, faculty and staff do not promote their own religions at school or pass on the beliefs of their particular faith to children.”
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.
Tags: announcement earlier this week, broadway debut, church of scientology, independent schools, katie holmes, l ron hubbard, private school, protest group, scientology influence, scientology protests, september school, spokesperson, village academy, warner bros, will smith
September 4th, 2008 at 2:03 am
Of course they’re a secular school!
And Narconon, Second Chance, Criminon and Applied Scholastics are secular programs as well.
Never mind that they’re all under the ABLE umbrella on the Scientology corporate chart!
Never mind that they all “happen” to teach Scientology courses.
They’re secular. A Scientologist would NEVER lie about it!
Right? They’re “the most ethical people on the planet” after all…
September 4th, 2008 at 2:55 am
They’re not a secular school. Their staff members are Scientologists, and, if I recall correctly, not all of them are even licensed/accredited by the state. And to be honest, Jacqueline Olivier is flat-out lying if she says that the staff members are not going to push their religion or pressure children to join Scientology and Scientology-run front groups.
They use L Ron Hubbard’s “Study Technology”, which, unfortunately, has not been shown to even approximate the effectiveness of current standard education methods. The goal of the protest is to warn potential parents that a) their child won’t get an adequate education, and b) warn parents who don’t know that the school is associated with and using Scientology-related doctrine.
September 4th, 2008 at 6:38 am
The goal of Scientology’s “Study Tech” is to brainwash those children into “thinking like a Scientologist”. If I am to believe that Will Smith doesn’t understand the cons of Scientology; then please protest the hell out of that school.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Brainwashing children with L Ron’s ‘Study Tech’ is completely immoral and needs to be stopped.Are we till supposed to believe that Will Smith is not a Scientologist or has he just been led along by his wife and his ‘best buddy’ Tom Cruise?
September 4th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I notice that Scientology has a huge advertisement on the bottom of this page-well guess where they got the money to pay for that?
I reccomend people do some research into both sides of the story and hear the experiences of the many ex-scientologistsbefore falling for the ‘church’s’ propaganda!
September 4th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I am extremely concerned about children being harmed by Scientology. I agree we should not oppose anyone just because of their beliefs – it is their actions that matter. Unfortunately, the Scientology leadership appears to have a callous disregard for the children in their care. Scientology’s use of child labor was recently exposed on Australian national television (7 July 2008 Channel 7). Ex-scientology kids have gone on ABC Nightline (April 24, 2008) to talk about the abuses they experienced as a direct result of Scientology policies. As reported in the New York Post (October 2, 2005) Scientology leaders and the Office of Special Affairs attempted to protect convicted rapist Gabriel Williams by intimidating his victim, telling her not to go to the police, then harassing her and her friends and family during the trial.
September 5th, 2008 at 2:21 am
I’m pretty sure you’re going to find that Will’s school is effective. That its students do well, learn the material, can apply the information and, generally, do well. I don’t believe for a second that Will supports harmful things, or would put his OKAY on harmful things.
September 5th, 2008 at 6:23 am
I don’t like it when you guys think that all the de-tractors have been good guys. They keep making a mystery of who came first the chicken or the egg. I can tell you, when I was in the Sea Org, there was a lot of young members that were very egotistical, real snobby, I can tell these people weren’t in Scientology for a noble cause, they were just in cause they got recruited and decided they wanted to join. I was in the Sea Org too, I can tell you, these people can tell you, this young age group was the ones that were real hypocritical, there quite a few nasty young people who got promoted real quick. I think that you have to realize that Scientology’s problem is the individual people. Because not all Scientology members are like that, it’s just mostly nasty egotistical people who are on the inside, who are not there for the right reasons to begin with, they alienate a lot of people while their in, and then they end up either leaving on their own choice, or being declared, but some of these people, I have noticed were pretty mean and cold when I knew them on the inside. They shouldn’t blame the CoS as a whole, because I knew a lot of people who were not like that, and there were execs who were real nice polite people. It’s just these young people who created all the little cliques and then lashing out when they weren’t being favored for having their parent’s be high up execs or what not.
September 5th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
well, will smith has always been a smarmy paki bastard imo, ever sine his parents bought him that french prick of bell end show, ya know, in west philadelphia born n raised, smoking crack in the playground, tose were the days …. or somet, his school should be burned to the ground, no because hes a scientologists bum buddy, just because hes a nob.
September 6th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Of course this school is designed to push Scientology ideas and concepts to kids. What else? A teacher who is a Scientologist is obliged to do this. He or she must Keep Scientology Working, and kids are great recruits. A teacher who is a Scientologist will also LIE and LIE and LIE if it benefits her crooked belief system. Stop the rot.
September 6th, 2008 at 7:31 am
And I object to the advert for the Scientology video channel which has just appeared. 80 videos! 3 hours!! Peanuts!!! Anonymous has posted hundreds if not thousands of videos running for days and days; too many to count. And most of them are funny, and intelligent, even witty and wise.
September 6th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Though ex-communicated by the so called management of Scientology and knowing that the official organization of Scientology has been taken over by the IRS (see secret agreement between the church and IRS in 1993) and knowing that the leaders of Scientology do not apply Scientology fully anymore but partly so as to serve their own plans and schemes to keep scientologists under control, I am still for Will Smith’s school. I take my hat off to him to have done so. It shows the man cares about children not about religions nor even about fans.
I have done the Study Tech and I can tell you there is nothing better than that for children. If it’s taught in a light, standard way. Now for the grown ups… I don’t know. They can’t learn anyway not even one new thing. So why don’t we let Will Smith do as he pleases… because he can help educate children…
Why are people afraid of conversion? I have been declared a suppressive by the so called church but I am still a Scientologist. I saw good in learning about the spiritual side of life in a world which knows nothing about it. Let the children learn about it even the hard way.
As for the school, it’s a school guys. It teaches ways to learn to children. Do you want them to smoke pot outside the school or inside the school learning how to learn? The target is not Will Smith or the school, it’s the so called Scientology leaders who persecute people who dare speak. See the real targets and try to catch those, can you?
September 6th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
The Scientology advertisement below is part of Google’s ad network and not directly linked to The Celebrity Truth. Just wanted to make that clear.