Rosalind Wiseman

Over the last few years, I have paid closed attention to the news stories coming out about former and current students of the Landon School,  a prestigious all-boys school in Bethesda, Maryland. First there were the Duke lacrosse players, some of whom were Landon alum, then it was an SAT cheating scandal, and then, in quick succession, George Huguely’s arrest for murdering his girlfriend at UVA.  Most recently, current students were outed for creating a fantasy girl hookup league modeled after fantasy football.

I’ll admit that my interest was more than professional. I went to a private school in Washington D.C. and knew a lot of Landon boys as a teenager. While I hung out with boys from other all-boys’ schools in town, and I often made poor decisions about boys in general, I knew better than to go to Landon parties for the exact reasons stated by so many today.

As an adult, I have become friends and colleagues with several Landon alum—all of whom are exceptional men. But as men, all speak about the difficulties of growing up in a school culture where women and many other groups of people were regularly disrespected.

As one of them said to me years ago, “My mother would never have believed I was the same person if she had ever seen me at Landon. The person I was at home and the boy I had to be to survive Landon were completely different.”

It’s also true that among the independent schools I work with in Washington D.C., Landon is one of two private schools notorious for having coaches who publicly demean and humiliate their own players, often doing so in front of Landon parents who are happy to sit on the bleachers, gossip amongst themselves and ignore the treatment of the student athletes.  I saw it myself at a recent game I attended. When I asked a coach from another school about it, he shrugged and said, “They want to win and if it means screaming and insulting their kids, that’s what they’ll do. And the vast majority of parents totally support it.”

I have often caught myself wondering how the Landon community was dealing with all of this; including the Board of Trustees and the Admissions Office. Beyond the ethical crises the school faces, the people in charge of insuring Landon’s reputation as a competitive, independent school must know that this series of events is unacceptable for the school’s continued sustainability. You can’t have alum wanting to make excuses for the private school they attended. You can’t have current and prospective parents wondering if a Landon education is a bad investment. And you most certainly can’t have college admissions worry that a Landon graduate is a potential liability.

At some point, I knew that they would have to respond to a reporter—beyond the inane statements their public relations person had made in the past.

Last week, it happened and I encouraged parents, educators, and teens to read Valerie Straus and Michael Birnbaum’s thought provoking July 1st article Landon School Shaken by Unusual Rash of Events, and the subsequent comments readers made in reaction to the article. The only aspect of the story I take issue with is the article’s title, because these events aren’t unusual. It’s just unusual for this many egregious events coming out of the same school to become public.

The article’s value is in the insights I see when a school is publicly forced to recognize that its students and educators’ behavior are in flagrant disregard of the school’s stated values.

Moreover, it is in these moments that you can most clearly identify the challenges any school has to honestly scrutinize its traditions, and the power of legacy to stifle a rigorous examination of its past, present, and future.

Here’s what I observed:

1. A vocal public that lashes out at anyone who criticizes the school, and encourages the people involved to pay no attention. Here’s an example from a reader:

I am going to say it for all of you that are not saying it-”You sound simply jealous and want to see the rich white kids going down” For all the dedicated teachers and fine boys attending Landon, chin up, wear you Landon T-shirts with pride, all this will make you even better and stronger.

2. A Board of Trustees that believes there is no reason to analyze the institution. It’s hard to believe that Landon’s Board of Trustees thought it would be a good idea for their chairman, Tom Cunningham, to talk to a reporter if they knew how transparent his privilege and cluelessness would come across. In commenting on the impact of the arrest of one of Landon’s former star athletes, George Huguely V, in the death of his former girlfriend, Mr. Cunningham said, “That had a huge emotional impact on this community and this institution. The human reaction would be, ‘Could I, should I, would I have done something differently, with a 15- or 16-year-old kid?’ And the answer is no.”

3. Leadership so seeped in its own privilege that it can’t see a truism: everyone has the right to define their own experiences and you don’t get to define or dismiss someone else’s experience just because it doesn’t match your own.

When Mr. Cunningham responded to the reporters’ questions about the repeated sexual, homophobic, and sexist comments of a Landon coach,

Cunningham acknowledged that Johnson made some “unacceptable” comments to his players. But he said that none of the comments were homophobic, even though others might have interpreted them in that way.

Exactly. Parents and students at his school believed the coach made homophobic comments so Mr. Cunningham doesn’t have the right to dispute their reactions and feelings.

3. An Administrator is hired who tries to make a change, and ends up leaving.

It’s common for a school in Landon’s predicament to bring in an administrative person to address the problem. But when that person challenges the status quo, as Mr. Neil Phillips, the upper school head, did with the student body in public and private forums, this is often met with resistance. Reading between the lines, Phillips announced Monday that he planned to leave at the end of next school year to pursue opportunities in philanthropy, youth advocacy and education reform. It’s clear that the status quo is not ready to give up their more comfortable, unexamined way of conducting themselves.

4. In spite or all these serious challenges, there is a lot of good within the institution. It is still possible for some students to get a positive experience in the classroom—but that only comes from extraordinary teachers who create classrooms that are sanctuary’s from the school’s outside culture. Here’s another reader comment from a Landon Alum:

I remember many Landon teachers who modeled civility and found a way to challenge our privileged assumptions in a respectful (not antagonistic) spirit. I don’t know about “the adults running the school” these days, but the teachers with the deepest institutional respect at Landon are truly superb, sometimes in concert with, and sometimes despite the prevailing environment, right on the edge of fraternity and oligarchy.

So what can Landon do?

Have the courage to face itself and ask the following:

1. What are our traditions that we are proud of? Why?
2. What are our school traditions that need to be challenged? Why?
3. Who has not felt comfortable coming forward in this school? How can we create an environment where people can voice dissent and be respected for it?
4. Who is letting their power and privilege convince them that they have the right to speak for others? Who is going to respectfully stop those people from dominating the discourse and let others speak their truth?
5. What will happen to this institution if we don’t address these challenges effectively?
6. What will happen if we do?

Like any school, if Landon can answer those questions with courage and integrity, it can transform itself into a place all boys can become men of honor. For the sake of all the Landon men, I hope they do.