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Landon Dance
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Anonymous
At any school you can think of, there will be nice kids who don't drink and don't go to parties. There will also be nice kids who don't drink but do go to parties, and nice kids who do drink. As the parent of a high school student who is nice, does go to parties and dances, and (to my knowledge) doesn't drink or do drugs, my first advice would be to stop thinking school by school. The more important variable is the cohort - some cohorts have more pressure to drink/drug than others. If your child is older (entering an exhisting class) do all the research you can on that cohort and the social dynamics - pressure to conform early on may translate into pressure to drink later. If your child is younger, s/he will contribute to the identity of the cohort, so do good parenting and good modeling early. |
Anonymous
| I am not sure why the blame is being placed on the school...my guess is that the hospitalized students drank BEFORE they got to the school. |
Anonymous
|
If that's correct, they might have been noticed if they
were checked in properly. Couldn't be in great shape at that point if they had to go to the hospital. |
Anonymous
That was our trick back in the day! |
Anonymous
| At my daughter's girls' Catholic, non-"big" school, you hand in the names beforehand (with contact numbers), a parent must sign a permission slip, a parent must go to one of three meetings a year on alcohol awareness, a parent must complete the Community of Concern website module on alcohol (and hand in the certificate of completion), they reserve the right to search your car, and the kids have to go through a "receiving line" upon entering the dance, which includes shaking hands with quite a number of faculty and parent chaperones and culminates with some kind of breathalyzer. If someone turns up having been drinking, the police are on-site and deal with that kid. The school itself is more or less 600 girls so I wouldn't be surprised if they had 1000 kids or close to it at a dance at one time or another. |
Anonymous
|
They had way way over their average number of kids at the dance. The gym was packed beyond 'homecoming'
numbers. |
Anonymous
|
Just out to Landon community:
Dear Landon Parents: I am writing to you at this time to describe the details of a disturbing event that occurred at Landon this past weekend. On Saturday night (4/10), Landon hosted a dance on campus. The event, called the Landon Mixer, was organized and sponsored by our Multicultural Student Alliance (MSA). Unfortunately, this event was marred by some incidents. Several parents have inquired about what took place. We understand and appreciate that concern, and this message is to inform you of what actually occurred. We wanted to wait until I could sort out the facts before sending this along and we appreciate your patience. The dance, scheduled to run from 7:00 to 11:00p.m., was closed at 10:00p.m. At around 9:30p.m., an ambulance was called to campus to care for and transport a student who was determined to be intoxicated. Shortly thereafter, a second ambulance was called for another student who was also intoxicated. This occurred just prior to 10 p.m. At that point, the dance was closed at the suggestion of the police officers that Landon had employed to provide security at the event. Parents of a third student were called to pick up their son who was also believed to be intoxicated. None of the students in question was a Landon student. At 10:00 p.m., all students were asked to exit the gym, which they did without incident. For the next hour, many students were picked up by parents, while others drove themselves off campus. Having been alerted to the event by the ambulance calls, Montgomery County Police officers were on hand to administer Breathalyzer tests to student drivers prior to allowing them to exit the campus. This process resulted in a long back up of cars on campus. By 11:15p.m., campus was clear and all but a very small number of students had left. It is our understanding that the Police cited no drivers. We want to apologize to our parents and students for the issues surrounding this event and, in particular, for not communicating the details of the event in advance. The MSA has sponsored dances in past years, and they have been notable for their low attendance. So much so, that there have been occasions on which the event has been cancelled. The extremely large student turnout to Saturday’s event took us by surprise and we regret that. In hindsight, the scope of the invitation should have been limited. Too many students arrived at the dance expecting to attend. While those who gained admittance to the dance, were limited and adequately supervised, hundreds more were turned away. Undoubtedly, the forces of social networking and text messaging were at play Saturday night, resulting in a very widely publicized and surprisingly over-subscribed event. Also invitations were not restricted to a select number of schools, but were extended without limit. While this has been the practice for previous MSA sponsored dances, this is not an approach that we will sanction in the future. Also, we want to apologize for the inappropriateness of some of the messaging that accompanied the communication and materials that promoted the event. In light of the troubling aspects of what occurred on Saturday night, it is important to mention that the overwhelming majority of the students in attendance conducted themselves in very positive manner, behaving and socializing in appropriate ways. We trust that most of them enjoyed themselves and their time with friends. We have learned a lot from this event, and will continue to review the manner in which we handle such events. There are important lessons to be taken for us, our peer schools, and for our students, as well. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss this event and answer any questions or concerns you might have. Please feel free to contact me directly or reach out to Neil Phillips, Head of the Upper School. With best regards David M. Armstrong CC. Neil Phillips |
Anonymous
You think girls at Madeira don't drink? |
Anonymous
|
So is Landon saying this is MSA's responsibility? If so, doesn't Landon have any oversight with the group? Assume
Landon has it's own MSA organization--don't they have advisers? Wouldn't a Landon administrator see and approve any MSA communications about an event? Wouldn't this be posted on Landon's website? Who was supervising this dance--was it student run without any faculty advisors? |
Anonymous
No, some do, but I think it is lower than at some other schools because the consequences are severe. And those who do not drink do not feel like social misfits, which was the posters question. |
Anonymous
You sound like a classic enabler--and frankly quite immature for someone who claims to be a parent. Underage drinking and alcohol poisoning are serious issues. If the kids who were carted away by the ambulance had parents as permissive as you, it's no wonder they engaged in such behavior.
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Anonymous
| 2 of the boys are still in the hospital. Very sad. |
Anonymous
| Please tell me Armstrong is not the Head of School at Landon. That was a very poorly written letter and I'm actually embarrassed for the author. |
Anonymous
| Armstrong actually wrote and email to the parent community at Landon, which was posted to this site. |
Anonymous
|
David Armstrong is a very nice man. However, he needs
to have better supervision over his staff. I am not sure he knows what actually goes on in the MS and HS. I don't mean day to day detail, but larger issues with the students. This dance is an example of the sort of attention the administration pays to people and events. It's a very public example. |