Maureen Dowd column on Landon

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But if parents are unduly using influence to protect their children and extract unfair advantages from the school, shouldn't that parent be called into question?

Then the post would not pass the test of being about the public actions of an adult but, rather, about allegations based on conjecture. If you have facts about this child's parent that you think are admissible on this forum, why not run it by the moderator in advance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But if parents are unduly using influence to protect their children and extract unfair advantages from the school, shouldn't that parent be called into question?

Then the post would not pass the test of being about the public actions of an adult but, rather, about allegations based on conjecture. If you have facts about this child's parent that you think are admissible on this forum, why not run it by the moderator in advance?

I'm sorry, but that doesn't fly with me. 99% of these boards are based on rumor, conjecture, and gossip. Suddenly we have to toe the line when it's a big-shot parent being questioned? Let's just further tip the scales. I've personally seen administrators at my school have their private lives dissected on these boards, completely irrelevant to the conversation at hand and purely based on anything but facts. Without a peep from the moderators. Yet it's unfair to wonder if a parent's status is impacting the handling of a very troubling situation at a top school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone please explain DCUM rules? I've read posts trashing Landon's lacrosse coach, his two sons, Landon's headmaster and the head of the MS, but we're not allowed to discuss whether a famous father is shielding his son from punishment?

I think as long as you attach your own name to the comment, you're fine.

[Anonymous]

I agree. I've also seen some administrators named (I think that's fair) and have seen some posts removed for naming administrators.

Given that, I am not even sure about naming an administrator.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone please explain DCUM rules? I've read posts trashing Landon's lacrosse coach, his two sons, Landon's headmaster and the head of the MS, but we're not allowed to discuss whether a famous father is shielding his son from punishment?

I think as long as you attach your own name to the comment, you're fine.

I've seen all of about 4 posts, outside the moderators, with names attached.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why the school is keeping this dolt; I believe he was pushed out of a Big 3 before he fell into Landon. Didn't Landon check his record before admitting him?? Or, more likely, did it matter?

[Anonymous]

Not sure why some posters are trying to personally attack Landon's head lacrosse coach and his family. I know both of his sons, one happened to teach my boy this past year at Landon and he loved his class. His youngest son doesn't work at Landon.

[Anonymous]

Please Stop!!!

These boys may be young men, but they are really just children.

Please leave them alone now. How much punishment can they possibly deserve for this offense? How much punishment and public humiliation can they possibly handle? Please stop now, before something bad happens.

Please Stop!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I don't understand why the school is keeping this dolt; I believe he was pushed out of a Big 3 before he fell into Landon. Didn't Landon check his record before admitting him?? Or, more likely, did it matter?

Good question! The father is regarded as a first-class jerk even by lacrosse standards. Bethesda Lacrosse suspended him from coaching for a couple of years because he was so abusive to players and referees, and I heard his team was disqualified from a tournament a couple of weeks ago for breaking the rules about who could play. So should we should condemn the entire state of Maryland because they keep electing him? That's about as fair as condemning every boy at Landon -- as most of the posts here do -- because of the shameful actions of a few kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please Stop!!!

These boys may be young men, but they are really just children.

Please leave them alone now. How much punishment can they possibly deserve for this offense? How much punishment and public humiliation can they possibly handle? Please stop now, before something bad happens.

Please Stop!!!

Sorry mom, we'll behave now.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
I'm sorry, but that doesn't fly with me. 99% of these boards are based on rumor, conjecture, and gossip. Suddenly we have to toe the line when it's a big-shot parent being questioned? Let's just further tip the scales. I've personally seen administrators at my school have their private lives dissected on these boards, completely irrelevant to the conversation at hand and purely based on anything but facts. Without a peep from the moderators. Yet it's unfair to wonder if a parent's status is impacting the handling of a very troubling situation at a top school?

If you see posts that you believe are unfairly attacking any individual -- especially posts that directly or indirectly reveal the individual's identity, please use the "report" button to report the message. It is not possible to read every message in the forums. That is especially true of threads such as this that have many new messages each day.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm sorry, but that doesn't fly with me. 99% of these boards are based on rumor, conjecture, and gossip. Suddenly we have to toe the line when it's a big-shot parent being questioned? Let's just further tip the scales. I've personally seen administrators at my school have their private lives dissected on these boards, completely irrelevant to the conversation at hand and purely based on anything but facts. Without a peep from the moderators. Yet it's unfair to wonder if a parent's status is impacting the handling of a very troubling situation at a top school?

If you see posts that you believe are unfairly attacking any individual -- especially posts that directly or indirectly reveal the individual's identity, please use the "report" button to report the message. It is not possible to read every message in the forums. That is especially true of threads such as this that have many new messages each day.

I'm sorry JSteele, but could you explain this policy further? I've seen entire threads on the "Landon lacrosse coach" -- isn't it fairly easy to derive the person's identity from that? There are posts within this thread that talk about his sons BY NAME. Aren't these posts "unfairly attacking an individual?" Plus, of course, multiple posts which flay Landon's headmaster (not hard to figure out who that is) and the Head of the MS (ditto). It seems as if it's OK to attack individuals if they're affiliated with Landon, but not raise issues about parents which may have led to the behavior of the students that caused this entire scandal. Just trying to understand where the line is drawn here. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

The moderator's decisions seem to be very ad hoc, as they probably need to be. Posts have to be judged separately on a case-by-case basis. And sometimes there seems to be inconsistency.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
I'm sorry JSteele, but could you explain this policy further? I've seen entire threads on the "Landon lacrosse coach" -- isn't it fairly easy to derive the person's identity from that? There are posts within this thread that talk about his sons BY NAME. Aren't these posts "unfairly attacking an individual?" Plus, of course, multiple posts which flay Landon's headmaster (not hard to figure out who that is) and the Head of the MS (ditto). It seems as if it's OK to attack individuals if they're affiliated with Landon, but not raise issues about parents which may have led to the behavior of the students that caused this entire scandal. Just trying to understand where the line is drawn here. Thanks.

I addressed exactly this issue earlier in this thread. If you want to give your opinion about the professional performance of the "Landon lacross coach", I'm willing to allow it (at least for now). If you want to make a personal allegation about the "Landon lacrosse coach" or name him by name, then I won't. Children should not be named and I would appreciate your pointing out posts that do that. I really don't want to dig through all the pages of this thread looking for kids' names, but it looks like I will have to. It is is very important to you to disclose the identity of the father of a Landon student, I guess you could follow the same principle and say something like "one of the kid's fathers is the MC County Dog Catcher". But, that really seems like a petty thing to do. The principle of doing to others as you would like them to do to you seems pretty reasonable and I don't know why people don't follow it more often.

Finally, you can disclose your own identity in a verifiable manner and post whatever you please about whomever you please.

[Anonymous]

I agree the rule is (and should be) a little fuzzy. It seems to me like high-up school administrators are public figures and generally fair game. Teachers and coaches slightly less so. Parents and students are non-combatants and should be left alone.

The answer probably also depends on how harsh and how relevant the criticism is. Saying something like "XYZ teacher is a bad teacher of math" is a lot different from saying "XYZ teacher is really ugly and probably gay."