She began questioning whether schools needed to be closed at the start of the pandemic and has continued since. She regularly posted on Twitter, organized rallies, gave interviews to local media, and attended meetings at the mayor’s office. She characterizes her actions as advocating for kids.
Levi’s did not view it the same way. She says she was initially told to “pipe down” by the head of corporate communications and continued to get similar calls from the firm’s HR, legal team and board. She “refused to stop talking.”
Eventually, Sey moved her family from California to Colorado so her “kindergartner could finally experience real school.” Following an appearance on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show, Sey says Levi’s employees increasingly spoke out, calling her racist, anti-science, anti-trans and more. She was asked to do “an apology tour,” but refused.
The situation continued to devolve, with the head of corporate communications sending a daily dossier of Sey’s online behavior to CEO Charles Bergh, and Bergh allegedly remarking at one executive leadership team meeting that Sey was “acting like Donald Trump.”
Sey, who began at Levi’s in 1999 and claims she was earlier told by Bergh she was on her way to leading the company as long as she stopped “talking about the school thing,” was eventually told it was “untenable” for her to stay with the firm.