Maureen Dowd column on Landon

[Anonymous]

Yes - it is worse that ridiculous. It is EVIL. These are gang rapists in the making. Or worse.

[Anonymous]

12:16 Not great but not on the same level. Plus the women posed for the camera. These woman would not know they were part of an organized sexual-conquest event.

[Anonymous]

Unless, of course, their course is changed. Had they been successful and gotten positive reinforcement from their activities ... however they might have measured success in their juvenile minds ... that would have corrupted them further. Glad they were caught.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this really that ridiculous? They're 14 and 15 year old boys.. they're supposed to be brash and hormonal.

To me, "brash and hormonal" is making an inappropriate comment or gesture. This is so, so much worse than that. These were multiple girls, whom these boys were planning to lure into a vulnerable situation where the girls would have no idea what was really going on, then play on their feelings to try to manipulate the girls into behavior they very likely would not have agreed to if they had known what the real circumstances were. It's awful, it's objectifying and it is brutally unfair to the young women involved. Maybe I'm a prude but I am genuinely stunned by this. This isn't a bad apple; this is a bad crop, to the extent that it quite honestly makes me doubt the entire orchard. For lack of a better phrase!

[Anonymous]

I'm not a Landon parent, and at first I thought this was pretty awful. But perhaps we mothers are naive in believing that it is not entirely normal for boys this age to objectify girls and want to boast about "scoring" to their friends. I have a feeling that has gone on since time immemorial, and always will, whether we like it or not. What was particularly offensive here, perhaps, was the coordinated nature of the conduct, which gives it the aura of gang rape. Maybe some dads could chime in on this conversation?

As for how to teach your boys -- mine are on the cusp of puberty, and all the Catholic bashers on this forum will hate to hear it, but the Church and Catholic schools in our experience so far have done a great job of teaching the boys to revere Mary, to respect their own mothers and the special sacrifices we make, and to treat girls as they would want their own sisters to be treated, if they have them. If you aren't prepared to teach your children that their sexuality is sacred, then I think it's a lot harder to argue that it's not just another pleasurable form of recreation. That's how I viewed it before I converted, and I am glad my own kids will have the rudder that I lacked at their age.

[Anonymous]

12:19 sending pornographic images via cell phone is a felony which can result in jail time.

[Anonymous]

I hate to say this but I think there is a culture among some of the adult Dads that implicitly condones this kind of attitude towards women b/c deep down, the Dads feel this is ok and may even behave this way themselves, when they are not w/ women. Perhaps the boys pick up on this or perhaps even witness or overhear their Dads. Porn is also to blame, IMO. Porn pretty much does nothing BUT objectify women and boys have pretty much unfettered access to unlimited amounts of porn. I'm dating myself, but my generation had to pass around the Hustler and Playboys or a VHS tape...usually not so hard core. The internet offers much more and no limits. I'm no prude but porn is much more of a danger to society than most people want to admit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:11:14 again. I'd also suggest checking out Washington Episcopal School for K-8. A friend whose DC is in HS at GDS raves about how considerate, insightful, and self-aware the boys who came from WES are.

OMG. Some good some bad news. But WES is not a place where it would be hard to find a decent kid to be friends with. ...

Care to elucidae, 12:04? Are you saying that WES is a mixed-bag and that the group my friend knows (WES boys that went to GDS for HS) are the exception (but a recurrent exception) rather than the rule?

[Anonymous]

First off, if any of you actually take Maureen Dowd seriously, then go walk into oncoming traffic and make the world a better place.

Moreover, Dowd's entire article is completely unsubstantiated. There is no factual base whatsoever. Knowing who we're dealing with, I wouldn't be surprised if this entire article was based off pure hearsay.

The larger issue is not that some boys at a private school in Bethesda may have talked amongst themselves and ranked girls by physical appearance, but that this happens everywhere throughout our culture. To go and blame Landon about this is pretty short sighted. Have you ever seen any movie with Dave Chapelle or Chris Rock? How about girl movies like "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days?"

Even if this alleged behavior was true, it would only make these Landon kids just like every other teenage boy in America. Don't hate the player and not the game.

Moreover, the amount of media attention Landon has drawn is completely absurd. Landon is an all boys school, which makes it a target. Last time I checked, George Huguely has spent the last four years of his life at UVA, a school that for decades has been stalwart of racism, sexism, and drunken, boorish behavior. The fact that Yeardley Love was not even the only girl murdered at UVA this year says something. What about the rape and sexual assault.

In conclusion, Maureen Dowd's piece is nothing by hate mongering. It is completely baseless, and the behavior she is criticizing is rampant in every aspect of our culture.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Wow, see I could agree with an argument that said this incident represents an extreme case of something that's pervasive in our culture generally.

But charges of "hate-mongering" and claims that if Landon kids were engaged in this behavior they are "just like every other teenage boy in America" seem to be yet another case where Landon supporters seem to be in willful denial that something is seriously wrong here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate to say this but I think there is a culture among some of the adult Dads that implicitly condones this kind of attitude towards women b/c deep down, the Dads feel this is ok and may even behave this way themselves, when they are not w/ women. Perhaps the boys pick up on this or perhaps even witness or overhear their Dads. Porn is also to blame, IMO. Porn pretty much does nothing BUT objectify women and boys have pretty much unfettered access to unlimited amounts of porn. I'm dating myself, but my generation had to pass around the Hustler and Playboys or a VHS tape...usually not so hard core. The internet offers much more and no limits. I'm no prude but porn is much more of a danger to society than most people want to admit.

News flash: Your teenage boys only have access to internet porn if you give it to them. Put filters on your computers, and a password on the only computer he's allowed to use, which is in the kitchen or the family room or somewhere else where you can see him when he's using it. Do NOT give him an IPhone or an ITouch or any other handheld device that can access the internet, or if you do, disable the internet. Block all offensive TV channels on your television, and do not have youtube on your big screen. I agree completely with the poster that our culture is so sex-saturated that it is rather duplicitous to blame boys for doing what our culture promotes at every turn. My kids think I don't "trust" them, but I tell them, I wouldn't leave pornography lying around the house, so why would I leave it a click away?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Yuck. Another reason we won't look at Landon. Not all of us measure success by people's paychecks, you know. People who "waste their lives" as bartenders and waiters might be devoting every free hour they have to a passion such as art or music. I'd rather my son have such a passion than be a grind in his daddy's insurance or commercial real estate business. (I'm a lawyer and my husband's a consultant, and we have plenty, so no sour grapes here.)

[Anonymous]

The MS head does need to be fired.

[Anonymous]

The Landon board needs to stop viewing these horrific crimes as isolated incidents and honestly admit that there is a pattern here. Then the school needs to do a complete evaluation of the school and make dramatic changes. I actually think the schools accrediting organization (AIMS) should demand this at the next review. They are breeding monsters on that campus. I would never send a son there, and I'll keep my daughters a safe distance from any Landon suitors.