Browning school head blames ‘tabloidism’ for trans controversy

The head of the elite Browning School praised himself in a letter to trustees and dismissed controversy over the school’s decision to admit transgender boys as “tabloidism.”

“It has been tabloidism, pure and simple, and I’m proud of our team and grateful to all trustees for the smart, patient, redoubtable support — though I am also sorry for the emotional strain it has placed on so many,” John Botti wrote in the letter first obtained by the Daily Mail.

Botti, who earns $700,000 a year, also claimed he had gotten complaints from only two parents and one alumnus, insisting “99% of the noise is coming from outside the house.”

He boasted of having heard from “20 New York City heads of school” and school leaders from other states “who have signaled both their frustration at our media treatment and their solidarity with our thoughtful and principled approach to the current moment.”

Browning let parents know about the new gender policy earlier this month.

“As a school that proudly celebrates and affirms boys at every stage of their lives, we acknowledge that the many ways in which gender can be lived and expressed are vastly different now than at our founding in 1888,” the prestigious private Manhattan academy recently wrote in a letter to parents.

The elite K-12 school — which costs $62,500 a year and was founded to educate brothers Percy and John D. Rockefeller — added on its website, “The Browning School will consider for admission any child who (i) identifies as a boy or (ii) was assigned male at birth, who wishes to join a boys’ school and is well-served by our mission.”

One parent who spoke to The Post Saturday said some of the claims Botti made in the letter to trustees were untrue.

“Botti waited until he got the contracts signed in March by the new students enrolled for September before he wrote this ‘inclusive’ letter that betrays every reason parents send their children to a TRADITIONAL BOYS SCHOOL,” one Browning parent emailed The Post.

“The new contracts since 2020 give the school all authority and none to the parents who complain.”

“It’s a lie that only one lower school parent complained,” the parent added.

“Everyone is furious that they have thrown the school and its history down the drain for bending over for any child with gender dysphoria that would be better suited to a coed school while they ‘figure it out.’”

Prior to the decision on trans policy, a seven-year member of Browning’s board of trustees resigned and slammed the school in a blistering letter.

The board member, who noted they would also be yanking their sons from the school, wrote that “Browning has degenerated into a morass of dysfunction, misfeasance, and unfairness” in part of the resignation letter posted on Instagram.

The Browning School is only the latest single-gender prestigious academy in the city to admit trans students.

In 2018, both the Spence and Brearley all-girls schools announced they would be accepting all applicants who identify as female.