Maureen Dowd column on Landon

[Anonymous]

Landon alum's research skills are pretty suspect, lol. I love how the BB gun in the car (which got the kids suspended for the rest of their senior years, by the way) morphed into a "hand gun" fired in the woods! I do agree that right now anything with Landon will get noticed--the confluence of the SAT cheating scandal, the Duke case (even though the players were innocent of a crime), and most of all the tragic Huguely murder have made "Landon" a symbol for privileged white affluent athletic kids who have gone wrong. Definitely could find things at the other schools to write about. So there is bad luck here -- but also, it would seem, some groupthink behavior and/or timidness by the administration at Landon. They'll survive but should try to run a squeaky clean show for a while!

[Anonymous]

That post by PPP, the Landon alum? Wow. That says it all about the kind of attitude Landon boys have. Scary.

[Anonymous]

Landon alums and Landon admin need to stop defending the bad behavior of its students and accusing the media of bias against Landon. Landon simply needs to clean up its act. Full stop.

[Anonymous]

I think I would be upset if I were a Landon alum also, as the school is now under a microscope. But I hope I would also try to look closely to see if maybe some things needed to change. We can't know if they are real posts, given the anonymity, but the posts from the parent of classmates of the Fantasy Leaguers suggests that they are really negative and unpleasant and have been allowed to get away with a lot of bad behavior. If true--and we don't know if that is true, of course--it suggests the school needs to overhaul disciplinary procedures and maybe also be more pro-active about culling out really bad actors along the way.

[Anonymous]

The parents, alums and administration of Landon just don't get it and that's why the school doesn't change. It's everyone else's problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Landon alums and Landon admin need to stop defending the bad behavior of its students and accusing the media of bias against Landon. Landon simply needs to clean up its act. Full stop.

Exactly right. Something tells me the problem at Landon clearly started at home. Jock culture meets hormonal teens. Dad's slapping their young sons on the back when they cross sexual benchmarks. My boy's growing up!!! Anyway. then, those sons who learned sexual disrespect became alumni, and board members, and the culture of disrespecting women became the culture of Landon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The parents, alums and administration of Landon just don't get it and that's why the school doesn't change. It's everyone else's problem.

Actually, it becomes our problem when they leave Landon and go to UVA where they murder our girls who don't buy into the jock-culture, stripper-hiring, general disrespect for women that is taught at Landon.

Landon ought to tattoo their boys with a big brown and white "L" so that we can warn our girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First time poster here! I just learned about this website and boy do some of you guys have a lot of time on your hands. Just how credible is this website - when everyone is anonymous.

As a Landon alum, I think what these Landon boys did was wrong, I have a daughter who attends SR and a younger boy heading into 7th grade at Landon - he has loved his time at Landon thus far.

As a previous poster said, if you put a microscope under any private school in the are, you will find some skeletons in the closet.

The Washington Post IMO has a fixation with the Landon school for boys. Is it because its not affiliated with a church? maybe? Just this past winter, several junior boys from Georgetown Prep were caught smoking dope in the dorms - including some lax players, and yes one stud lacrosse player. There was never article in the post about this - nor should there be. (and yes the Prep lacrosse player is still in school too)

STA lax player was asked to leave. Other STA students also went bye bye. Some athletes.

A STA student brings a hand gun to campus and shoots it off in the woods - one of them was an STA lacrosse player. Were those boys expelled. The post had a tiny blurb the next day in the Metro section about this.

Excuse me? You clearly live on another planet. 1 boy had a BB gun in his car. It hit the national news [print and TV].

St. Stephens - best lacrosse player this year, was just expelled from SS.SA for dealing pot on campus. A few other kids were involved - the post never reported that story.

expelled.

A few Whitman students were recently caught trading pornographic pictures of young student - the Post didn't seem to cover this story.
I learned of this on the news.

Lets not forget about the "tea bagging" days at Georgetown Prep when football and lacrosse players would stick their testicles in the mouths of rookie players making the varsity.

As for Landon's SAT scandal, if you think, the landon boys were the only boys cheating that morning in the Holton Arms library that morning - you are mistaken.
And these fine Landon lads would not have spilled the dirt on STA or Prep guys? What planet are you on?



Again, I'm not defending these current Landon students but I ask - why was this article even covered in the first place. Is there nothing else for Maureen Dowd to write about ( PS Maureen Dowd had two nephews who attended Georgetown Prep) For all you moms out there, if you don't think your 8th grade son has ever looked at porn or thought about "scoring" at a party, you are in la la land. If you don't think other kids at other private schools are dreaming about having sex with their female friends, your living on another planet. These boys were dumb enough to post this crap on the internet.

These creeps set up an organized ranking and betting pool like a fantasy football league. That's a big leap from calling a girl hot and hoping to date and eventually hook-up with her. Or just hook-up at a party. [i]

The offenders in the Georgetown Prep tea bagging incident (more than 20 years ago BTW) were expelled swiftly and the victim's parents sued the perps' parents with Prep's support.

[Anonymous]

Why won't Landon get rid of these boys?

[Anonymous]

And when the girls "sext" the boys, as has been happening all over the country, can the boys be found guilty of having pornographic images of under-age girls in their possession?

[Anonymous]

I don't know where you are getting your info but neither one of the St. A boys involved in the bb gun incident was asked to leave. They both finished out the school year at St. Albans

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know where you are getting your info but neither one of the St. A boys involved in the bb gun incident was asked to leave. They both finished out the school year at St. Albans

BB gun boys suspended for remainder of school year. A leading lax player was asked to leave after drug incident in fall so this may be what poster was referring to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know where you are getting your info but neither one of the St. A boys involved in the bb gun incident was asked to leave. They both finished out the school year at St. Albans

My understanding was that the Senior (who left the BB gun in his car, and was in class when the other boy took it into the woods) was allowed to graduate, but was barred from the school for the rest of the year. The incident was far from a blub in the metro section. It was covered live on all the TV stations. He had already been accepted into probably the most pretigious college, and I am told is just an outstanding kid. I dont know whether his acceptence was rescinded. The other boy was, I understand, expelled, and both publically face (minor -- as was the 'crime', criminal charges in DC.) And several boys with off campus pot incidents were also expelled this year. As best I can tell, and I am pretty close to both schools, the is a stark difference about what is tolerated.

Boys will do stupid things....wherever they go to school. The question is, what is done about it. The bigger question is, if knowing that they will do stupid things, means you just accept it and live with it, or you smack them down, like you would any aspiring alpha pack animal, if you want there to be some stability and peace. Knowing that the vast majority of all these boys at all these schools are pretty darn good kids, there is a pattern at Landon of a 1950's frat -- in there is a recurring theme of a lack of respect (thats distinct from teenage lust) for women, that keeps showing itself too often to be random. The boys are pretty much born all the same, so that says something in the culture that is getting them to push the envelope a little too far, to act as if they wont get caught (or it wont matter) and apply anger (or atleast angry words) towards those they view as weaker than them (in particular women)

I just dont see this a series of bad breaks. Am a male, am fairly alpha, very competive, and have sons. Chivalry is about using your strength and your power to protect the weak, especially women, not to dominate them. The culture here seems to be to use strength to take, rather than to use ones gifts to protect and to build.

The exact same inherently male drives can be turned by authority and role models towards either state. My sense is that Chivalry remains a core value at some of the other schools. I am not saying that bad behavior by boys doesnt exist everywhere. But I do believe that Chivalrous boys at other schools, and should have, at Landon, 'schooled' these little cretins. And if they didnt, their fathers, and their Board, should have. If a third of the Landon Board had been women, the men, if they had decency, would have been shamed into doing right. (And of course, it would have been the men's idea-- thats we way we men do things-

[Anonymous]

Incorrect on the BB gun incident in part. Nobody took gun into woods, but boys picked gun up out of car and sighted towards woods (prompting 911 calls from passerby b/c gun had scope and looked like a real rifle). Both were seniors. Both got same punishment; suspended for rest of school year but after completion of academic work allowed to participate in graduation and related activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Incorrect on the BB gun incident in part. Nobody took gun into woods, but boys picked gun up out of car and sighted towards woods (prompting 911 calls from passerby b/c gun had scope and looked like a real rifle). Both were seniors. Both got same punishment; suspended for rest of school year but after completion of academic work allowed to participate in graduation and related activities.

Story was 2 boys drove to school, and parked the car for the day. BB gun in the back seat. One boy went to class. Boy 2, on his own, (being respectful who these boys are), went into the woods. Had never shot a bb gun. tried it, put it back in the car, went to class. A mom saw him in the woods with a 'sniper rifle', called the police, and the school (and close, and Sidwell) were locked down in minutes. BB gun was found in the back seat of the car. Car was traced. Boys were hauled out of class in cuffs. Its all in the news reports, and video is on the web.

The boys were barred from school for the remainder of the year. The senior, a star in every sense (academically his star) and 18 was charged with "transporting a BB gun" in DC. The other boy, a minor, was charged with possessing a BB gun in DC.

I have a boy there. This was a stupid thing for these boys to do, it was in fact trivially minor, and they were hugely punished. Thats the way it should be. Thats the way it should be at Landon.

The defining quote at the Cathedral, in my opinion, is that of Paul Herman, Head of the Lower School, for decades. When a line is crossed about morality, OR stupidity, he looks at the boy, (and his parents) and says "We just don't do that here", and he means it. Thats what male role models need to say to young men, and that is what young men with testosterone and big dreams need to understand about how they use their strength and their brains.