Landon article from 7/1/10 Washington Post

[Anonymous]

The article is sort of a mess. If i were a landon booster I wouldn't be upset with it because the story falls short of really articulating a theme. The school seems in disarray but it's not clear why. I wanted to hear more from the parents at the school. Even if they had only positive things to say I would understand the school a little better. I'm really curious about what is going on there.

[Anonymous]

The retaliation problem is real and no current family wants to say anything.

[Anonymous]

I graduated from Landon in 2004 and heard aboutt this website a few days ago. I know every single one of the guys who was involved in the cheating scandal, 4 out of the 10 played placrosse. The 6 other boys, played different sports. Your an idiot to think what the media reports is always accurate.

[Anonymous]

The article just meandered through some recent events without pulling it together into anything coherent. How is the school responding? What do the parents think? What about that MS head whom everyone complains about and wasn't even mentioned? Is there something rotten about Landon or not? None of these larger questions were answered.

[Anonymous]

The very explicit plans of the departing head of the US were detailed in a letter from him that was distributed to the Landon community. His decision to pursue this new opportunity was something that he started discussing with the administration in January. He will remain as an assitant to the head of the school in the 10-11 school year.

[Anonymous]

I wonder which alum they will hire to run US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I graduated from Landon in 2004 and heard aboutt this website a few days ago. I know every single one of the guys who was involved in the cheating scandal, 4 out of the 10 played placrosse. The 6 other boys, played different sports. Your an idiot to think what the media reports is always accurate.

Thank you Landon alum for the, um, articulate and well reasoned, respectful response.

[Anonymous]

In my reading of the piece, some questions emerge: Why does the Board Chair acknowledge that the baseball coach made "unacceptable" comments to his players and made an "error in judgment" in taking players to Hooters and even required summer classes for "positive techniques," but then turns around and defends him by saying that other accusations (homophobic remarks, inappropriate sexual comments, humiliating comments about players' physical appearances) are "scurrilous" and the coach should "get the benefit of the doubt." After acknowledging all the inappropriate behavior, why then stick up for the coach when the accusation has been made that he "had discussed his sex life with the boys and had offered to show them a picture of his wife in her underwear?"

Second point: What are the four white students who accused the black honors student of cheating doing with a camera in the middle of a test, if they are to be believed? How can a unanimous Honor Court convict the boy when one of the accusers has character issues of his own? Why was the verdict overturned? And did the few black teachers who skipped the graduation ceremony in protest include the departing Upper School Head?

A larger theme that emerges is that Landon is not necessarily a school full of bad kids, but rather that the bad kids (and apparently also some coaches) are not properly disciplined or even kicked out, and that punishments vary by sport and parental influence. This is true whether it's lacrosse players cheating on the SAT, 9th graders humiliating girls with a "fantasy league" that is posted on the Internet, boorish behavior at Landon by George Huguely, disgusting remarks from a coach, conflicting verdicts on an incident with racial overtones, etc.

Landon does not sufficiently (or equally) provide the boundaries that kids (especially boys) need to grow into mature young men, and to learn to be respectful of girls and women, notwithstanding the lip service that the school pays to the notion of character education.

Perhaps the lack of religion in a secular, all-boys school is part of the problem, which has led to a warped notion of entitlement. Some of the coaches and parents don't seem to be helping, either.

[Anonymous]

``It remains the best-known secular private boys school in the Washington region.''

Uh, that's not much of a claim to fame. What other secular all boys schools are there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I graduated from Landon in 2004 and heard aboutt this website a few days ago. I know every single one of the guys who was involved in the cheating scandal, 4 out of the 10 played placrosse. The 6 other boys, played different sports. Your an idiot to think what the media reports is always accurate.

Thank you Landon alum for the, um, articulate and well reasoned, respectful response.

Oh cut him some slack. Maybe he was a lacrosse player,

[Anonymous]

Sounds like some of Landon's faculty members needs to go. The administration needs a facelift starting from David all the way down to the LS Head (there is a new guy starting in the Fall) Its funny how so many parents revere at respect Neil Philillips, but a lot of these problems in the upper school surfaced during his reign of power the past 4 years and he has done very little. Administration needs to go - starting with the board to and a few administrators who are not forcing the rules.

I don't think Landon being a secular school has anything to do with it. Lets not go there folks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think Landon being a secular school has anything to do with it. Lets not go there folks.

Why not? Sure, the "religious" schools have their share of problems (query how "religious" some of them really are). But segregating a bunch of hormonal teenaged boys together for their entire education does seem like a recipe for Lord of the Flies, without the moderating influence that religious instruction, and role modeling by male faculty who practice their faith, provides. Landon seems to prove the point that institutional "character education" isn't meaningful when it is completely secularized.

[Anonymous]

I don't really think that has anything to do with it. I think the problem is "affluenza"... the same hold true for religious schools for the affluent.

[Anonymous]

14:02:
1. from the article it is unclear which of the charges in the anonymous letter are legit, which are unfounded per TC
2. camera=cellphone, testimony from several witness, dean who acted as defense was said to be openly hostile, potentially intimidating to accusers

[Anonymous]

If someone sees a fellow student taking a test with a book open, instead of taking a surreptitious shot of the kids' foot with the book, why wouldn't you raise your hand to call the proctor (or walk up to the proctor) and say something right then - and there. Hey, this guy sitting next to me has his book open and I am concerned he may be cheating, or it is distracting me, or whatever? If the answer is the exams aren't monitored, the whole situation is circular. What an awful way to run things ... just primed for false accusations and the like.