What is going on at Holton?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was sent out last year. Stellar write-up, now redacted for privacy. Since the original was removed.

Dear Parents,

We want to let you know that Thursday, February 13th was Upper School Science teacher XXXs last day teaching at Holton-Arms. XXX taught here for 18 years, and contributed significantly to many aspects of the science program, including creating our Upper School engineering course and the Robotics Team. We wish him well in his future endeavors.

Rest assured that your daughters are in good hands. MMM will continue to lead the Advisory Group and will be assisted by US Counselor AAA. PPP, one of the other ninth-grade physics teachers, will teach the U4 ninth-grade physics class for the remainder of the year. HHH, who has an undergraduate degree in physics from YYY and a PhD in astronomy from the UUU, will teach the Advanced Analytical Physics for the remainder of the year. RRR, Director of Libraries and Information Services, will cover the last few classes of the Computer Programming and Robotics second trimester course. We are waiving the Science Research Program’s requirement to take Science Literacy, a trimester course offered in the spring, and we will not offer the course this year. HHH will reach out to the girls enrolled in that class to assign some readings. We are continuing to seek out coverage for the Introduction to Engineering class and for the Robotics Team. In the meantime, members of the Science Department will cover Engineering and the Robotics Team. We will update you once we have solidified that coverage.

We shared this news with your daughters this morning. As always, please let us know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Head of School
Director of Upper School

This was sent out as cya. Not sure if any girls requested individual counseling but never discussed or acknowledged. Basically it was all swept under the rug until now.

This all happened just before covid. February of 2020. So a bit of luck that there wasn't hyper focus on it. Maybe the administration will follow up on it now. Better late than never.

[Anonymous]

The Holton boosters or cheerleaders are either on vacation or have no excuses for the school's bad acts. The silence is deafening.

[Anonymous]

What exactly happened with the physics professor? This and the financial stuff are red flags for me, we are in LS and i am wondering what we got ourselves into.

[Anonymous]

I’m interested in the latter as well. Anyone know?

[Anonymous]

just coming across this thread. Unbelievable that there is an actual conversation out in the open about all this -- my daughter graduated from Holton and witnessed this all firsthand.

[Anonymous]

Witnessed what? The financial issues or the physics teacher? I’m a Holton parent (lower school) and am very concerned about the physics teacher situation because I have no idea what actually happened and how they did or didn’t handle it.

Does anyone have insight into this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Holton boosters or cheerleaders are either on vacation or have no excuses for the school's bad acts. The silence is deafening.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Holton boosters or cheerleaders are either on vacation or have no excuses for the school's bad acts. The silence is deafening.

+1

What bad acts? We have talked about the financial piece, which is generally unsupported. There have been a few references to this physics professor thing but NOBODY seems to have details, only vague references. I’m a happy Holton parent for sure, but I’m open to facts. I just haven’t seen any specifics. I’d love to in order to understand what you all are talking about. Either support your general statements, dish on the Physics professor, or take your vague-posting elsewhere. Drama.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Holton boosters or cheerleaders are either on vacation or have no excuses for the school's bad acts. The silence is deafening.

+1

What bad acts? We have talked about the financial piece, which is generally unsupported. There have been a few references to this physics professor thing but NOBODY seems to have details, only vague references. I’m a happy Holton parent for sure, but I’m open to facts. I just haven’t seen any specifics. I’d love to in order to understand what you all are talking about. Either support your general statements, dish on the Physics professor, or take your vague-posting elsewhere. Drama.

Did you see the letter that was re-posted from Susanna Jones and Chris Lynch? That is pretty clear and specific about the complete lack of accountability for Mr. XXL's departure mid-year. That's GREAT that you are a happy Holton parent for sure. Enjoy it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was sent out last year. Stellar write-up, now redacted for privacy. Since the original was removed.

Dear Parents,

We want to let you know that Thursday, February 13th was Upper School Science teacher XXXs last day teaching at Holton-Arms. XXX taught here for 18 years, and contributed significantly to many aspects of the science program, including creating our Upper School engineering course and the Robotics Team. We wish him well in his future endeavors.

Rest assured that your daughters are in good hands. MMM will continue to lead the Advisory Group and will be assisted by US Counselor AAA. PPP, one of the other ninth-grade physics teachers, will teach the U4 ninth-grade physics class for the remainder of the year. HHH, who has an undergraduate degree in physics from YYY and a PhD in astronomy from the UUU, will teach the Advanced Analytical Physics for the remainder of the year. RRR, Director of Libraries and Information Services, will cover the last few classes of the Computer Programming and Robotics second trimester course. We are waiving the Science Research Program’s requirement to take Science Literacy, a trimester course offered in the spring, and we will not offer the course this year. HHH will reach out to the girls enrolled in that class to assign some readings. We are continuing to seek out coverage for the Introduction to Engineering class and for the Robotics Team. In the meantime, members of the Science Department will cover Engineering and the Robotics Team. We will update you once we have solidified that coverage.

We shared this news with your daughters this morning. As always, please let us know if you have any questions.


Sincerely,

Head of School
Director of Upper School

This was sent out as cya. Not sure if any girls requested individual counseling but never discussed or acknowledged. Basically it was all swept under the rug until now.

This all happened just before covid. February of 2020. So a bit of luck that there wasn't hyper focus on it. Maybe the administration will follow up on it now. Better late than never.

I heard directly from a senior, who graduated in 2020 and she said ask any senior about it because it was a well known fact the Upper School Science teacher was a sexual predator. Apparently their were numerous reports of sexual allegations against the Upper School Science teacher. The head of school "brushed it under the rug" until they no longer could and he was dismissed in the manner above. Perhaps their outrageous legal fees or some of that $21B loan were used as a settlement to the family. The head of school would have the girls come for lunch to talk and when they would report abnormal sexual behavior, she would say "No, that didn't happen". I find this disgusting especially with all the press with the ME TOO movement. How can the Head of School be teaching this message to our future women? How is she still there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was sent out last year. Stellar write-up, now redacted for privacy. Since the original was removed.

Dear Parents,

We want to let you know that Thursday, February 13th was Upper School Science teacher XXXs last day teaching at Holton-Arms. XXX taught here for 18 years, and contributed significantly to many aspects of the science program, including creating our Upper School engineering course and the Robotics Team. We wish him well in his future endeavors.

Rest assured that your daughters are in good hands. MMM will continue to lead the Advisory Group and will be assisted by US Counselor AAA. PPP, one of the other ninth-grade physics teachers, will teach the U4 ninth-grade physics class for the remainder of the year. HHH, who has an undergraduate degree in physics from YYY and a PhD in astronomy from the UUU, will teach the Advanced Analytical Physics for the remainder of the year. RRR, Director of Libraries and Information Services, will cover the last few classes of the Computer Programming and Robotics second trimester course. We are waiving the Science Research Program’s requirement to take Science Literacy, a trimester course offered in the spring, and we will not offer the course this year. HHH will reach out to the girls enrolled in that class to assign some readings. We are continuing to seek out coverage for the Introduction to Engineering class and for the Robotics Team. In the meantime, members of the Science Department will cover Engineering and the Robotics Team. We will update you once we have solidified that coverage.

We shared this news with your daughters this morning. As always, please let us know if you have any questions.


Sincerely,

Head of School
Director of Upper School

This was sent out as cya. Not sure if any girls requested individual counseling but never discussed or acknowledged. Basically it was all swept under the rug until now.

This all happened just before covid. February of 2020. So a bit of luck that there wasn't hyper focus on it. Maybe the administration will follow up on it now. Better late than never.

I heard directly from a senior, who graduated in 2020 and she said ask any senior about it because it was a well known fact the Upper School Science teacher was a sexual predator. Apparently their were numerous reports of sexual allegations against the Upper School Science teacher. The head of school "brushed it under the rug" until they no longer could and he was dismissed in the manner above. Perhaps their outrageous legal fees or some of that $21B loan were used as a settlement to the family. The head of school would have the girls come for lunch to talk and when they would report abnormal sexual behavior, she would say "No, that didn't happen". I find this disgusting especially with all the press with the ME TOO movement. How can the Head of School be teaching this message to our future women? How is she still there?

+1

[Anonymous]

I am appalled by how this was handled. I wish I knew a way to have her address this. I hope the girls are ok.

Does anybody know what happened to the girls? We’re they touched, was is verbal? I don’t understand how this happened numerous times and nothing was done about it.

I cringe to think he may still be teaching. How could she wish him well?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am appalled by how this was handled. I wish I knew a way to have her address this. I hope the girls are ok.

Does anybody know what happened to the girls? We’re they touched, was is verbal? I don’t understand how this happened numerous times and nothing was done about it.

I cringe to think he may still be teaching. How could she wish him well?!

Why doesn't anyone respond to this? How could there be any rational explanation for wishing him well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am appalled by how this was handled. I wish I knew a way to have her address this. I hope the girls are ok.

Does anybody know what happened to the girls? We’re they touched, was is verbal? I don’t understand how this happened numerous times and nothing was done about it.

I cringe to think he may still be teaching. How could she wish him well?!

Doesn’t matter if it was verbal or physical, what the PP described is child abuse. I
In MD, all teachers and school administrators are mandatory reporters. Unfortunately, the consequence for not reporting to police ASAP is just losing your teaching license. How ironic that most MD independents don’t require faculty yo be certified! In VA and DC there are fines and jail time as consequences. This is why some folks say private schools are not in the business of education, they are in the business of keeping secrets. If this were a student to student situation, with both kids being the same age, it would be considered sexual assault in MD and not sexual abuse. Unfortunately, there are a bunch of privacy laws that protect the predator in sexual assault cases in MD. My child experienced this at another private school which is how I learned how terrible MD is at protecting children in private schools.


FYI, in DC any adult is a mandatory reporter. So, if your child tells you something they hear about another student you are on the hook to report it to the police ASAP.

[Anonymous]

It worries me that at a girls school, the head would not take seriously student accounts of sexual harassment. Unfortunately school boards are generally useless otherwise one would hope they would ask the head of school about these allegations.