A 1350-word profile of Warren in The Oklahoman in 2010 included a reference to Warren's exit from teaching in the early 1970s, saying Warren "felt stifled by the administrative constraints of the New Jersey public school where she worked," and implied this influenced her decision to switch to law. The entire passage reads as follows:
She became a teacher to brain-injured children, but felt stifled by the administrative constraints of the New Jersey public school where she worked. During a Christmas visit to Oklahoma City, her former high school debate classmates urged her to attend law school.Reached by email, the author of the 2010 profile, Don Mecoy, indicated he no longer had the notes from his interview with Warren that might have shed more light on her remarks. The Warren campaign did not respond to The Script's request for comment on the 2010 statement.
Three years after that profile and less than a year before the publication of her autobiography where Warren first spoke of the principal's role in her release from her teaching job, Warren gave a commencement address at Framingham State University in Massachusetts. In a passage of the speech that contained a theme of "I was sure I had my life all planned," Warren does not mention being fired for being pregnant, but rather sums up that phase of her life as "I taught in an elementary school. I thought I had my life all planned. Two years, one baby and one move later, I decided to go to law school." Here's the remark in full context:
No, I spent pretty much my whole career as a teacher. After I graduated from a commuter college – which back cost $50 a semester – I taught in an elementary school. I thought I had my life all planned. Two years, one baby and one move later, I decided to go to law school, thinking I could be a trial lawyer. I thought I had my life all planned. Three years and another baby and another move later, I became a law professor, teaching bankruptcy and eventually writing books on the economic issues facing middle class families—and I was sure I had my life all planned.The Warren story finally broke out of the right-leaning media after the Washington Free Beacon published 1970s school board documents regarding Warren's exit from teaching. Only then did the Warren campaign responded publicly, and then primarily through a CBS News interview. When asked why her telling of the story changed after 2014, the Warren campaign told CBS News: "After becoming a public figure I opened up more about different pieces in my life and this was one of them. I wrote about it in my book when I became a U.S. Senator."
Warren has subsequently attempted to turn the controversy to her advantage by championing the cause of women who have suffered pregnancy discrimination by employers. Neither Warren nor her campaign, however, have presented any clear documentation that can confirm the specifics of a firing story that Warren apparently waited 43 years to begin sharing publicly.
