Maureen Dowd column on Landon

[Anonymous]

Seems to me that the problem is the middle school head. You have a great lower school....heard nothing but wonderful things about it. Then it seems that things get rocky in MS.....sounds like they need to fire the MS head, and get a new one. A woman? Then, start over and move on.

[Anonymous]

Landon is the Lindsay Lohan of private schools--always claiming to be misunderstood and always claiming that it's somebody else's fault.

[Anonymous]

Speaking of Facebook, several years ago we left Landon because the bullying and flat out aggression was more than our family could handle. Fine right!?!? No, not fine, even today years later we are still being harassed by those monsters at Landon. It used to be harassing telephone calls, then text messages, now it's Facebook. Even when you unfriend a person those Landon thugs will always find an indirect way to get you.

We will forever loath the day we first accepted an open-house invitation to tour the Landon campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Landon is the Lindsay Lohan of private schools--always claiming to be misunderstood and always claiming that it's somebody else's fault.

Ha! That is hilarious and so right on!

[Anonymous]

I have heard of someone being suspended from school (i.e. not allowed to return for a few days or a week), but is an "in-school suspension" something different?

Anonymous wrote:``The boys were caught before the first party took place, according to several sources. Asked about the incident, a school official said Wednesday that three rising freshmen received in-school suspensions at the beginning of the school year.''

from the Washington Post.

So stop lying Landon parents. Those kids got wrist slaps and ruffled hair as punishment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I totally agree. It's really lame the WP quoted the NYT story in its own coverage and was scooped by it.

Anonymous wrote:I think it is really sad that the Washington Post only reported on this AFTER the New York Times ran a Maureen Dowd column on it. If the Post wonders why its numbers are dwindling, this is exactly why. This is a local story and we would expect the local paper to scoop the national one.

You're not being fair to the NYT and WaPo. First of all, the NYT reporters did not scoop anyone. A *DC-based* columnist for the Times wrote the story. Who do you think is more likely to travel in the rarified douchebag circles of Landon--the Times or the Post? Clearly, the Times.

Posties send their kids to STA. That's why the boys there can engage in pornographic film-making with girls they know, get suspended for it, and it never gets reported! The kids that did this would be graduating from college about now if memory serves.

Dude (or Dudette), go for it! Maybe you can get the media to pick up a nine year old rumor about St. Albans! Keep posting until you achieve this!

Joking aside, though, I think the difference is Facebook. In today's environment any such incident would come out--nothing stays secret once Facebook comes into play--and no doubt would be picked up by media (Washingtonian Magazine has certainly run negative stories on STA in the past). Also, perhaps those affected and in the broader community felt like the punishment meted out by STA was more robust (as compared to here, where disappointment with Landon's response may well have fueled the leak to the NYT).

The point is, there is a lot of unreported bad behavior at other schools including girls' schools, and at public schools. This is one incident I happen to know about, and St Albans dealt with about the same way Landon did, the difference was they were granted a sphere of privacy. There is an interesting psychology at play here though--don't Landon parents often have daughters at Stone Ridge, Holton and NCS? We did. Our friends did. These girls are very good at keeping their brothers and their friends in line, for the most part, and informing parents when indicated. they talk more! it's very helpful. No high school kid should be on facebook without parental oversight. This stuff has a very long tail. Kids can be so-o-o dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have heard of someone being suspended from school (i.e. not allowed to return for a few days or a week), but is an "in-school suspension" something different?

Anonymous wrote:``The boys were caught before the first party took place, according to several sources. Asked about the incident, a school official said Wednesday that three rising freshmen received in-school suspensions at the beginning of the school year.''

from the Washington Post.

So stop lying Landon parents. Those kids got wrist slaps and ruffled hair as punishment.

An in-school suspension is where you're made to sit in a room at school and consider how to avoid getting caught next time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having raised two sons that went to Landon, all I can say that it is an excellent institution that produces many exceptional individuals. The appalling actions of George Huguely should not mar Landon's reputation as an institution.

Landon graduates excel outside of school. I've heard some schools like GDS thrown around this forum a lot, and I'll say it flat out. Landon is a better school than GDS. Most of my sons' friends from Landon are a few years out of college and many of them are making over $100,000 a year or are attending top tier graduate programs. I find it ironic that many of their Sidwell and GDS counterparts are taking 5+ years to finish college, struggling to find jobs, or are wasting their lives as bartenders and waiters.

Landon is an institution that teaches kids how to excel. It's not an easy education and will never be perfectly understood from the outside.

After all, it is not the critic who counts, but the man actually in the arena. He lives a world apart from those weak and timid souls that know neither the thrill of victory nor defeat.

This says it all.

No need to even comment on the rest.

Indeed. The quintessential, nouveau riche, blowhard culture that dominates that school at all levels.

Nouveau riche? That's rich. This whole area is nouveau riche. The exceptions, ie., cavedweller types? They can and do get away with anything.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't let someone merge the other day because they had a Landon sticker on their car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do expect from a school whose most famous alum is Maury Povich? They're breeding a lot of rocket scientists over there.

There are a number of exceptionally distinguished individuals who graduated from this school and are not listed in Wikipedia. A lot of us know who they are. Do you think we are going to "out" them while this witch hunt is going on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't let someone merge the other day because they had a Landon sticker on their car.

What is your IQ?

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't let someone merge the other day because they had a Landon sticker on their car.


I think people have truly lost their minds. Please get off this website before your brain explodes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[let's not forget...
In 2006, Landon School alumni were also tied to a scandal involving the Duke University men's lacrosse team and a stripper. At the time, five students from the Landon School were on the Duke lacrosse team.]

Uh...weren't they all acquitted? Why is this so important to not forget?

They were acquitted of rape. They were not acquitted of hiring two strippers. Hiring strippers is behavior that is consistent with a culture of dehumanizing women.

The woman they were accused of raping is now being accused of murder herself. The AG has been fired, if not disbsarred. The students were declared innocent, not just "not guilty" but innocent. That is unusual. If the charge you are making is that they hired a stripper, you'd better be prepared to put anyone (male of female) who hires a stripper in the dock (fine by me--i'm a fundamentalist.) When the power of the state is arrayed against you on false charges--the power of the state with all that entails--I'd say you were more sinned against then sinning. hey--that's just me. But Alan Descewitz is very eloquent on this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[let's not forget...
In 2006, Landon School alumni were also tied to a scandal involving the Duke University men's lacrosse team and a stripper. At the time, five students from the Landon School were on the Duke lacrosse team.]

Uh...weren't they all acquitted? Why is this so important to not forget?

They were acquitted of rape. They were not acquitted of hiring two strippers. Hiring strippers is behavior that is consistent with a culture of dehumanizing women.

The woman they were accused of raping is now being accused of murder herself. The AG has been fired, if not disbsarred. The students were declared innocent, not just "not guilty" but innocent. That is unusual. If the charge you are making is that they hired a stripper, you'd better be prepared to put anyone (male of female) who hires a stripper in the dock (fine by me--i'm a fundamentalist.) When the power of the state is arrayed against you on false charges--the power of the state with all that entails--I'd say you were more sinned against then sinning. hey--that's just me. But Alan Descewitz is very eloquent on this point.

I'm not saying they committed a crime by hiring strippers. I'm saying they demean women by hiring them as strippers. Just like they demean them by assigning "points" for engaging young women in certain sex acts. Imagine the implication of what you're saying--it's not a crime, so butt out? Would you prefer Landon's motto be: Demeaning women, but not criminally (Oops, except for that 2010 incident).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do expect from a school whose most famous alum is Maury Povich? They're breeding a lot of rocket scientists over there.

There are a number of exceptionally distinguished individuals who graduated from this school and are not listed in Wikipedia. A lot of us know who they are. Do you think we are going to "out" them while this witch hunt is going on?

I would totally watch a TV series that "outed" the vast universe of secret Landon luminaries who are, even as we speak, hiding their Landon diplomas and buying a lot of blue and white athletic garb to try to pass as STA grads. Nis it true that Obama went to Landon but he's hiding it? Is thismthe REAL reason there is controversy over whether he was born in Hawaii? Does anyone remember a skinny kid named Barry playing jv lax for Landon in 1976?