WILL Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, deny they are Scientologists and deny the school they founded is a Scientology school — yet they’ve replaced the head of the New Village Leadership Academy, Jacqueline Olivier, with a woman who’s studied Scientology, Piano Foster.
The superstar couple had home-schooled their kids, Jaden, 9, and Willow, 7, before opening the school last September in Calabasas, Calif.
They reportedly quarreled with Olivier over the school’s Study Tech curriculum, which was devised by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
A rep for the Smiths told Page Six, “Jacquie is no longer at the school for reasons entirely unrelated to curriculum. She is an excellent educator and fully embraced the school’s secular and open-minded approach to innovative teaching methodologies.”
But an insider told RadarOnline.com, “Her position was becoming untenable as she did not agree with Study Tech and felt uncomfortable with it.” Foster was described as “more ‘in-line’ with their thinking.”
While Smith’s spokeswoman describes Foster as a Catholic, not a Scientologist, Radar reports Foster completed a Scientology Basic Study Manual course in 2005.
One of Study Tech’s harshest critics, Dr. David S. Touretsky of Carnegie Mellon University, said, “Children are inculcated with Scientology jargon and are led to regard L.R. Hubbard as an authority figure. They are laying the groundwork for later bringing people into Scientology.”
In June, Olivier defended Study Tech, telling the Los Angeles Times: “People tend to think Study Technology is a subject, but it is really just the way the subject is taught . . . the methodology doesn’t have anything to do with content.”
Touretsky said, “Study Tech is no more a secular learning methodology than wine and communion wafers are a Sunday morning snack.”