Without question, Jessica Day on New Girl was born to be a teacher. And even more importantly, she was born to teach at the crunchiest school in Los Angeles, Banyon Canyon. But in Season 7, it was revealed that something happened there that ended Jessica’s career as a teacher, something she legally could not talk about to anyone — not even her closest friends and confidants.
Throughout the course of the series, Jess went on quite a journey during her career. She was downsized from her job in Season 2, Episode 1, went on to teach adults and eventually found her way to being the Vice Principal at Coolidge Middle School. It was a difficult journey for her but one that led her to the realization that she wanted to be the Principal of a school. That was an important goal for her, one that led her to Banyon Canyon.
This alternative school was the perfect fit for Jess. Its hippy-infused ideology and new-age approach to teaching appealed to her greatly. She joined the faculty in Season 5, Episode 13, filling the role of Vice Principal — not confirmed until later. Eventually, she fulfilled her dream of becoming the Principal in Season 6, Episode 8. At the time, this seemed like everything professionally had fallen into place for her, but Season 7 later questioned that.
The beginning of Season 7 revealed a more than three-year time jump after the Season 6 finale. Nick was a popular author; Cece and Schmidt’s daughter Ruth was celebrating her third birthday; Aly and Winston were married and expecting their first child. But Jess was unemployed, having seemingly left her career as a teacher behind rather unceremoniously. And the hints she dropped about what happened were enticing, to say the least.
During Season 7, Jess made references to an incident at Banyon Canyon that not only ended her time at the school but also completely drove her out of teaching. It was heavily implied at one point that she may have played a part in bringing the school down. Later on, she got somewhat specific and said that she couldn’t talk about it unless one of four lawsuits was settled. She never specified who those lawsuits were against, though.
Given the nature of the school, it’s not hard to imagine that the wealthy parents who sent their kids there got really upset when they realized the education those same offspring were receiving was useless. But that would be, at absolute best, a supposition. There’s no evidence to suggest what did or did not happen in the final days of Banyon Canyon. For all fans know, the school might still be up and running under new leadership with a new mandate.
All that anyone really knew was that the end of Jess’ run at the progressive school was a train wreck of epic proportions, one that left her completely disillusioned with teaching. Considering how in love she was with the profession, it must have been something completely and utterly horrible. Whatever went down, it was, at the very least, something ridiculous, knowing Jess.
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