Anonymous wrote:Field hockey just lost its varsity coach in pre-season.

Which if you knew what you are talking about, you would know it has nothing to do with the school. Or the students. Or the athletes.

I guess you could say it has to do with the school since she left to go to NCS where she can rent the field for her club.

Speaking of club, athletics at school are fine, but you know most athletes have a club background. No college coach cares if a kid played varsity at Stone Ridge, Bullis, or Visi. Or Holton for that matter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Not trying to deflect on a serious subject.
But can someone explain to me the situation with team sports at the varsity level? would just like to get an idea of why the teams are not more competitive. Social media shows that they go to DIII or not-competitive DI programs.

A few thoughts. I would argue that Princeton is a competitive DI program. So is Georgetown. Duke? UPenn? As for the others, you would be hard-pressed to find a lot of Holton graduates who would be looking to play DI athletics. Modern DI (non-Ivy) is about the sport, not about the academics, and is often described as a full time job on top of coursework.

As for the Ivies, after cancelling last year and not giving the athletes the additional year that the NCAA gave everyone, the shine is certainly off. But Ivy is Ivy and the allure is still there.

In my opinion, the DIII programs are better than most DI programs. Academics first! There are great athletes and students going to the NESCAC and other high academic LACs.

Which teams are not more competitive in your mind? I think Holton does okay for a high school with ~350 students. How many local girls go on to play at a Big10, BigEast, ACC, etc. school?

Depends on what you are looking for. Your daughter to compete at the highest level in their favorite sport? Or to compete as an extracurricular (DIII) with academics first? Or to use it as a tool to get into college or a job? September 1st junior year is the start date for NCAA recruiting for many DI sports and OTHER schools have worked hard getting their student athletes ready for it. Athletics are not a priority at Holton. It is just above average or pretty good and has nothing to do with the size of the student body. Holton has the ability to attract high-performing students in academics AND athletics, but coaching and and sports are more like an after-thought when it comes to employment decisions. Field hockey just lost its varsity coach in pre-season.
What you are asking about does not fit the Sidwell Friends model that the Holton Head of School is pursuing - high dollar, full-pay, racially diverse student body - very outdated 1990s approach that works well with its new diversity, equity inclusion program. If your daughter is interested in competing at the collegiate level, or getting recruited for a sport, then you will want to consider a school like Bullis, Stone Ridge, Visitation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another MD private school brought in T & M Protection Resources out of New York to conduct investigation following sexual assault allegations a couple of years ago. Maybe Holton should do the same. All parents of children victimized were interviewed.

No chance the school would do that. Not interested in doing the right thing - or doing something that could make the admin look very bad.

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a 2020 here as well, but not well liked by my daughter's friend group at all. They were fully aware of his creepiness. Whether it was a mental health break or not, it was long overdue by several years. He made the girls feel uncomfortable, touching them, and had propositioned multiple girls of different races. Glad he was let go, but the worst part was the way he was lauded by the school upon his departure with no further discussion of all the girls' complaints. Yes, it sounds like the school was advised, albeit poorly, to ignore the girls after his departure and hope it would just all disappear. It's unfortunate that he is teaching at a NY school now. If he has his credentials listed on linkedin, that would mean that there is a high probability that someone at Holton - like HoS or US Director gave him a favorable recommendation. Yikes.

It looks like he is now with a NY public school where he taught before Holton. But still Holton would have a moral, ethical, professional responsibility to report the allegations of sexual harassment or assault that led to his separation.

Anonymous wrote:Another MD private school brought in T & M Protection Resources out of New York to conduct investigation following sexual assault allegations a couple of years ago. Maybe Holton should do the same. All parents of children victimized were interviewed.

No chance the school would do that. Not interested in doing the right thing - or doing something that could make the admin look very bad.

Parent of a 2020 here as well, but not well liked by my daughter's friend group at all. They were fully aware of his creepiness. Whether it was a mental health break or not, it was long overdue by several years. He made the girls feel uncomfortable, touching them, and had propositioned multiple girls of different races. Glad he was let go, but the worst part was the way he was lauded by the school upon his departure with no further discussion of all the girls' complaints. Yes, it sounds like the school was advised, albeit poorly, to ignore the girls after his departure and hope it would just all disappear. It's unfortunate that he is teaching at a NY school now. If he has his credentials listed on linkedin, that would mean that there is a high probability that someone at Holton - like HoS or US Director gave him a favorable recommendation. Yikes.

omg this is exhausting. parent of 2020 student. he was actually well liked by a lot of students. this is not someone who was accused of groping students in a sexual way. this is someone who was incredibly insecure and socially awkward and probably did get too close to girls or say really weird stuff about his dating life/ being lonely. he was depressed and I think had to take a mental health leave of absense from the school. there were not claims of direct assault. there was a rumor he threw a notebook in jest at a student in the past. there were claims that he was inappropriate more towards girls who were asian. the guy was definitely weird and shouldn't have been at the school. I am glad he was let go. We have ZERO idea about what the school did or didn't do. However, the zealots on this board are being ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am PP with the infamous axe statement. My point, clearly ill-made, is that no one has first person specifics; there are no police records; and the school statement is unclear. I, for one, have no idea what really happened, and it is ridiculous to keep speculating. If there was inappropriate behavior, the perpetrator is gone. Good. Whether the school handled well, most of us were not there so… who knows!
And while I am extremely careful for my daughter, I have seen the other side of the coin, as I had a family member falsely accused of inappropriate behavior by a disgruntled employee who was on a performance plan. Not that an adult is the same as a child ever, but you hopefully see the point. Ok, feel free to bash, as some of you always do.

Inveniam viam aut faciam.

Community service announcement for those non fluent in cool Latin tattoo phrases …

Inveniam viam aut

It means “Either I will discover the road, or I will make it”.

The verb inveniam is the first person singular future active indicative form of invenīre, meaning “to discover”. Therefore it is translated as “I will discover”.

Viam is the accusative singular form of via, meaning “road, path”. It takes the accusative because it is the object of the sentence.

Faciam is the first person singular future active indicative form of facere, meaning “to make, to do”. It is thus translated as “I will make”.

Finally the conjunction aut means “or”, and is used in pairs to indicate “either…or…”

Herefore, the sentence aut inveniam viam aut faciam means “I will either discover the path, or I will make it”.

If you wanted to say “We will either discover the path, or we will make it”, you would say aut inveniēmus viam aut faciēmus.

I assume they were trying to write the Holton motto, which is "Find a way or make your own"

Anonymous wrote:
Not trying to deflect on a serious subject.
But can someone explain to me the situation with team sports at the varsity level? would just like to get an idea of why the teams are not more competitive. Social media shows that they go to DIII or not-competitive DI programs.

A few thoughts. I would argue that Princeton is a competitive DI program. So is Georgetown. Duke? UPenn? As for the others, you would be hard-pressed to find a lot of Holton graduates who would be looking to play DI athletics. Modern DI (non-Ivy) is about the sport, not about the academics, and is often described as a full time job on top of coursework.

As for the Ivies, after cancelling last year and not giving the athletes the additional year that the NCAA gave everyone, the shine is certainly off. But Ivy is Ivy and the allure is still there.

In my opinion, the DIII programs are better than most DI programs. Academics first! There are great athletes and students going to the NESCAC and other high academic LACs.

Which teams are not more competitive in your mind? I think Holton does okay for a high school with ~350 students. How many local girls go on to play at a Big10, BigEast, ACC, etc. school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am PP with the infamous axe statement. My point, clearly ill-made, is that no one has first person specifics; there are no police records; and the school statement is unclear. I, for one, have no idea what really happened, and it is ridiculous to keep speculating. If there was inappropriate behavior, the perpetrator is gone. Good. Whether the school handled well, most of us were not there so… who knows!
And while I am extremely careful for my daughter, I have seen the other side of the coin, as I had a family member falsely accused of inappropriate behavior by a disgruntled employee who was on a performance plan. Not that an adult is the same as a child ever, but you hopefully see the point. Ok, feel free to bash, as some of you always do.

Inveniam viam aut faciam.

Community service announcement for those non fluent in cool Latin tattoo phrases …

Inveniam viam aut

It means “Either I will discover the road, or I will make it”.

The verb inveniam is the first person singular future active indicative form of invenīre, meaning “to discover”. Therefore it is translated as “I will discover”.

Viam is the accusative singular form of via, meaning “road, path”. It takes the accusative because it is the object of the sentence.

Faciam is the first person singular future active indicative form of facere, meaning “to make, to do”. It is thus translated as “I will make”.

Finally the conjunction aut means “or”, and is used in pairs to indicate “either…or…”

Herefore, the sentence aut inveniam viam aut faciam means “I will either discover the path, or I will make it”.

If you wanted to say “We will either discover the path, or we will make it”, you would say aut inveniēmus viam aut faciēmus.

Another MD private school brought in T & M Protection Resources out of New York to conduct investigation following sexual assault allegations a couple of years ago. Maybe Holton should do the same. All parents of children victimized were interviewed.

If you are of the belief that sexual assault does not happen unless the police are involved, then you have a lot to learn. And I truly hope you are not part of the Holton community.

Anonymous wrote:But the whole point is that we don’t know what he did. Surely he seems creepy but no one says what he did. Is inappropriate touching an arm around a student or actual sexual contact! No one is saying. I am glad he was fired but what happened that everyone seems to claim to know hasn’t been made clear. No matter what it is horrible but there are different levels of awful and police weren't involved so that makes me think he was just an awful creeper but not a criminal. Just guessing.

No, that is not the point. Creepy handsy teacher is gone. The point is that the administration ignored the girls complaints for years then denied that was the reason he left mid year. And now they still refuse to address it.
And how do you actually know the police were not involved? Are you part of their legal team? Or the administration?

If you are the

But the whole point is that we don’t know what he did. Surely he seems creepy but no one says what he did. Is inappropriate touching an arm around a student or actual sexual contact! No one is saying. I am glad he was fired but what happened that everyone seems to claim to know hasn’t been made clear. No matter what it is horrible but there are different levels of awful and police weren't involved so that makes me think he was just an awful creeper but not a criminal. Just guessing.

Anonymous wrote:I am PP with the infamous axe statement. My point, clearly ill-made, is that no one has first person specifics; there are no police records; and the school statement is unclear. I, for one, have no idea what really happened, and it is ridiculous to keep speculating. If there was inappropriate behavior, the perpetrator is gone. Good. Whether the school handled well, most of us were not there so… who knows!
And while I am extremely careful for my daughter, I have seen the other side of the coin, as I had a family member falsely accused of inappropriate behavior by a disgruntled employee who was on a performance plan. Not that an adult is the same as a child ever, but you hopefully see the point. Ok, feel free to bash, as some of you always do.

Disgusting. Clearly ill-made statements. There is no excuse for the school handling it in the manner that it did. Our girls are sent to Holton to be in the care of the faculty and staff. These are not unfounded workplace allegations. The teacher was let go because of what he did. There is no denying that.