Landon School Scandal

[Anonymous]

Per the administrators detective work comments at 9:45... I found this interesting so I checked some comments on news sites that pop up when I googled this lawsuit against Landon. The identical, word-for-word comments linked to pinkcherrypie and fit2fight on this forum are posted at AOL/jobs, Gazette.net, NBC, WUSA and, of all places, The Sacramento Bee.

Clearly is it a coordinated effort to generate bad press for Landon, and also apparently an effort by someone to make a few bucks by doing so.

[Anonymous]

Jeff, you are setting standard here. I think a good one. I'd like you to patrol for other schools as well.

[Anonymous]

Where should the patrolling start and end?

[Anonymous]

I'm the pp. This question just ocurred to me. Did Landon or anyone else ask you to review the posters and post anything you found fishy or is this something you are doing totally on your own.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff, you are setting standard here. I think a good one. I'd like you to patrol for other schools as well.

I try. I have become an expert on all things Beauvoir because I patrol those threads so closely. I've previously intervened in Sidwell threads as well. I have even had to get involved in Capital City Public Charter School threads. Who would have guessed that the schools forums would rival the nanny's forum for craziness?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the pp. This question just ocurred to me. Did Landon or anyone else ask you to review the posters and post anything you found fishy or is this something you are doing totally on your own.

I found it on my own. I know enough to know that a thread titled "Landon School Scandal" probably needs review.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeff, you are setting standard here. I think a good one. I'd like you to patrol for other schools as well.

I try. I have become an expert on all things Beauvoir because I patrol those threads so closely. I've previously intervened in Sidwell threads as well. I have even had to get involved in Capital City Public Charter School threads. Who would have guessed that the schools forums would rival the nanny's forum for craziness?

Having gone to private school as a child - I could have seen this.

I couldn't find Landon on a map if you paid me ($5?) but, I enjoyed the fun! Thanks crazy people!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Per the administrators detective work comments at 9:45... I found this interesting so I checked some comments on news sites that pop up when I googled this lawsuit against Landon. The identical, word-for-word comments linked to pinkcherrypie and fit2fight on this forum are posted at AOL/jobs, Gazette.net, NBC, WUSA and, of all places, The Sacramento Bee.

Clearly is it a coordinated effort to generate bad press for Landon, and also apparently an effort by someone to make a few bucks by doing so.

I've been out of the "law biz" for a while, but I wonder if the "attorney work product" privilege covers generating fake posts on websites? Interesting! At a minimum, this does tend to accentuate the "desperate plaintiff"/"throw enough mud at a wall and something will stick" interpretation of the lawsuit.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Per the administrators detective work comments at 9:45... I found this interesting so I checked some comments on news sites that pop up when I googled this lawsuit against Landon. The identical, word-for-word comments linked to pinkcherrypie and fit2fight on this forum are posted at AOL/jobs, Gazette.net, NBC, WUSA and, of all places, The Sacramento Bee.

Clearly is it a coordinated effort to generate bad press for Landon, and also apparently an effort by someone to make a few bucks by doing so.

Just to elaborate on this, one of the anti-Landon messages here was posted by fit2fight who markets his services here:

http://fiverr.com/fit2fight

He has a picture on that page.

On this article about the Landon lawsuit, a guy named "Mike Morales" posts several times using his Facebook login:

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Landon-School-Faces-2-Million-Lawsuit-156038235.html

Mike's Facebook page is here:

http://www.facebook.com/WhyThatGuy

That page also has a picture which I believe shows the same guy as fit2fight's page. At any rate, one of the comments posted on NBC 4's article matches word for word the post here by fit2fight.

Mike also shows up here (as do most posters from the NBC 4 page) as Mike Norales (with an "N" instead of an "M"):

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2012/05/31/elite-private-school-accused-of-culture-of-discrimination/

This actually is a more interesting story than the discrimination law suit.

[Anonymous]

The AOL article was quite interesting. Among other things that struck me about Harrison's claims, he says he hired a consultant to look at the Head of School's salary and then told the Board it was too high. He also only gave the Board his list of "discriminatory acts" AFTER he was told his contract would not be renewed (although he does say he tried to get the white supervisors fired). What comes through is that he made waves by hiring a consultant without permission then going over the head of school's head to the board. While the incident may not speak that well of Landon's governance situation, they'd be entitled to fire him for that reason (absent some different contractual set-up). The retaliation-for-complaining-about-discrimination angle really has the whiff of bootstrapping to look for a good angle.

[Anonymous]

Well done Jeff. If [as appears likely] the law firm representing the plaintiff is behind the sock puppeting campaign, there is no privilege whatsoever that will protect them. Now they may try to cover their tracks, but it would be highly embarrassing for the firm if they turn out to be the source of this PR campaign. For what it’s worth, the plaintiff’s firm is considered a leader in use of digital media. I’m sure that Landon has excellent counsel that doesn’t need advice from DCUM, but I’d follow this lead hard to see what turn’s up. There may even be a counter claim or state bar disciplinary proceedings in the future. This will be fun to watch.

[Anonymous]

Learned something tonight by reading through this thread - and that I'm going to (attempt to) stop judging other school communities when I actually don't know many if any families attending those institutions.

We had our first run through the private school admissions process for next year - and we got our first choice school thankfully. But my spouse and i would often make snarky comments like "could you actually be friends with someone that would willing send their son to Landon. On purpose?" When right now we don't know a single family attending the school. Our opinions were driven by reputation - not knowledge.

So - after reading through this thread and seeing the snark factor at 11 - I'm going to attempt to be a hell of a lot better at actually touting informed opinions about these schools instead.

Agree with the lawyers point on this looking a bit like the plantiffs are drafting off previous scandals. But I also would think that a charge like this in the Landon school community should be taken seriously and not blown off. If it was my child's school, I'd be pretty upset and shaken at these charges. And I'd want some direct answers from the administration - without any sugar-coating.

Thinking of the little guys at the school - this is a pretty horrible thing to have kicking around the hallways.

[Anonymous]

Jeff please address the issues of multiple posters working together with each other tho achieve the same goal. They have their talking points that originate from the same source. They may be posting from different IPs/ locations, but it is still sock puppeting nevertheless.

Also, the fact that through detective work you have identified several paid sources means nothing. Several different individuals may have chosen to post anonymously through these paid re-routing services because they felt what they had to say was important, but they felt threatened.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff please address the issues of multiple posters working together with each other tho achieve the same goal. They have their talking points that originate from the same source. They may be posting from different IPs/ locations, but it is still sock puppeting nevertheless.

Also, the fact that through detective work you have identified several paid sources means nothing. Several different individuals may have chosen to post anonymously through these paid re-routing services because they felt what they had to say was important, but they felt threatened.

This post -- which I must say is one of the biggest piles of BS I've come across in ages -- is not relevant to this discussion. Please post it in the appropriate forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff please address the issues of multiple posters working together with each other tho achieve the same goal. They have their talking points that originate from the same source. They may be posting from different IPs/ locations, but it is still sock puppeting nevertheless.

Also, the fact that through detective work you have identified several paid sources means nothing. Several different individuals may have chosen to post anonymously through these paid re-routing services because they felt what they had to say was important, but they felt threatened.

Speak for yourself, Punch and Judy. Nobody's given me any "talking points" -- I've given my own view on the merits of the complaint, complete with the caveat that I'm going off the complaint and published information (all released by the PLAINTIFF and his lawyers) with no first-hand information. I probably wouldn't stick with this thread except for being fascinated by the ham-handed and ultimately unsuccessful attempts to manipulate public opinion through phony posts.