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THURSDAY, JULY 1, 2010


PHOTOS BY TRACY A. WOODWARD/THE WASHINGTON POST Unusual series of events shakes a school of privilege landon from B1


Many schools, public and private, face disciplinary issues. Prince George’s County authorities, for in- stance, are investigating the beating of a student in a Bowie High School hall- way a few weeks ago that came to light after video of the incident was posted on Facebook. Ballou High School in the District had more than a dozen small fires this year, mostly in stairwells and bathrooms. But it is rare to find so many chal-


lenges in such a short time at a school like Landon. Parents pay nearly $30,000 a year to send their boys there, even though many of them live near some of the best public schools in the nation. Details of the incidents in this report were obtained through interviews with more than a dozen parents and other knowledgeable sources. All asked not to be named, citing fear of retaliation. Cunningham, speaking on behalf of the school, confirmed many of the alle- gations. Other top school officials de- clined to be interviewed.


Alone, each of the episodes might


not have led to the questions Landon’s leaders are asking. But the cumulative impact became too powerful to ignore. “There is a good-old-boy mentality


that still exists,” one parent of an ath- lete said. “ ‘Boys will be boys. They just horse around and then it crosses the line, and then we need to reel them back in.’ That just doesn’t work in to- day’s society anymore.” Landon was founded just before the stock market crash of 1929 by a young teacher, Paul Landon Banfield, and his wife, Mary Lee. Their descendants still attend. One wore a shirt to graduation that listed all of the Banfield boys who had walked Landon’s halls, including the name of a young relative not yet old enough to enroll. There were 22 boys in the school’s


first year, when it was on Embassy Row in Northwest Washington. Today about 675 from grades 3 through 12 are en- rolled in the school on Wilson Lane, and it receives 450 to 500 applications a year for 120 spots. As other boys schools closed or became coed over the past two decades, Landon didn’t budge. It remains the best-known secu- lar private boys school in the Washing- ton region.


With courses ranging from forensic


science to constitutional law, the school produced two National Merit Scholars and a National Achievement Scholar this year. It routinely sends graduates to selective colleges and has fiercely loyal alumni. Former Columbia University provost Alan Brinkley is an alumnus, as are talk-show host Maury Povich and Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun; the son of Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D) is now enrolled. “We know boys” is the school’s un-


official motto. It advertises an empha- sis on character. Students are bound by an honor code, which is a vow of hon- esty written in the 1960s, and a civility code, which is a promise to respect oth- ers, added more recently.


Allegations against coach


In spring 2009, some Landon par- ents met with headmaster David M. Armstrong to voice concerns about the treatment of players by the baseball coach, Drew Johnson, who is also the athletic director and an English teach- er and who has worked at the school for 15 years. The parents alleged that Johnson made homophobic remarks to boys, in- cluding on a day when the school was holding an assembly on tolerance; made inappropriate sexual comments; and humiliated some players by crit- icizing their appearance. The parents said Johnson told some players that


“I will concede that going to school with 675 boys and no girls means that you miss out on some invaluable


perspective.” — Neil Phillips, upper school head, in a speech at an ethics assembly last fall.


they were “fat and had tits.” Johnson did not return repeated phone calls and e-mails. In February, several parents, identi-


fied only as “Landon mothers,” reached out to the three female trustees be- cause they felt that male officials were not interested in their opinion and wanted to “protect their friends.” In a letter, they asked that Johnson be re- moved as coach because of his “incred- ibly damaging and demeaning behav- ior . . . when he deals with the baseball players.” In an open letter of response in


March, Cunningham called the accusa- tions against Johnson “scurrilous” but said the school had already taken “re- medial action” to correct the situation. Cunningham said in an interview with The Washington Post that Johnson was sent last summer to classes intended to teach him “positive” techniques. The school also dismissed a part-time assis- tant coach and added upper school head Neil Phillips and two others as as- sistant coaches, Cunningham said. The anonymous letter “was damag-


ing,” Cunningham said, “because we are a school that is built on trust.” Cunningham acknowledged that


Johnson made some “unacceptable” comments to his players. But he said that none of the comments were ho- mophobic, even though others might have interpreted them in that way. “Did he make remarks he shouldn’t


have made?” Cunningham said. “Yes.” Several parents said that Johnson had discussed his sex life with the boys and had offered to show them a picture of his wife in her underwear as a re- ward for winning a game. “He denied he said that,” Cunning- ham said. “After 15 years, I think he gets the benefit of the doubt.” Parents also complained that John- son took players to the racy restaurant Hooters for dinner, which Cunning- ham confirmed and called an “error in judgment.” This past season, Cunningham said


he attended many more baseball games than usual “for the very reason of scrutiny.” Landon won its league championship, and parents and other sources said Johnson’s behavior had improved.


‘Fantasy girls league’ In August, a group of ninth-graders


The Landon School, above, sits on 75 acres in one of Bethesda’s priciest


neighborhoods. Parents pay nearly $30,000 a year to send their boys to the school even though many of them live near some of the best public schools in the nation. At left, a view of the school’s atrium and gymnasium inside the Barton Alumni Athletic Center.


was found to have concocted a “fantasy girls league” that involved teams of boys competing over how sexually inti- mate they could get with selected girls. It was modeled on fantasy leagues in which sports fans create teams and se- lect professional athletes in a draft, as- sign points to their performance and track their progress over a season. The Landon boys were caught before the competition started, when one stu- dent put his team on the Internet and a girl’s mother found it. The boys re- ceived in-school suspensions of a few days. Some Landon parents and em- ployees said they thought the penalty was too lenient. At an ethics assembly Sept. 18, Phil- lips, the upper school head, told the students that sometimes people tell him they worry about their daughters “hanging out with ‘Landon guys’ be- cause they aren’t sure how their daugh- ters will be treated,” according to a copy of the speech the school provided to The Post.


The Landon School’s crest in Buchanan Library.


“I will concede that going to school with 675 boys and no girls means that you miss out on some invaluable per- spective,” Phillips told the boys. “Know that there is so much more to the girls in your lives than what you see through the very small window of malls, movie theaters and parties on weekends. Much, much more.” Phillips announced Monday that he planned to leave at the end of next school year to pursue opportunities in philanthropy, youth advocacy and edu- cation reform. By late April, the school was dealing with several pending disciplinary cases, according to Landon spokes- woman Jean Erstling, who declined to give any details. Armstrong, the head- master, went to Cunningham with a concern that there was a perception among the school community that star athletes and students related to alumni or trustees received special treatment. Such allegations are not new. Several parents cited a 2002 SAT cheating epi- sode in which eight members of the la- crosse team were suspended while two non-athletes were forced to leave the school. “It’s fair to say that rules don’t apply


to every student. You could go back and look at infractions . . . and three boys might get three different punish- ments” for the same behavior, one par- ent said. “To an outsider, you could say that this kid got off easy because his fa- ther is on the board of trustees.” Cunningham said he was not sur- prised to hear such complaints. He said a committee of trustees had studied several recently resolved disciplinary cases and recommended that “in many cases we do more” discipline in the fu- ture.


When Armstrong arrived six years


ago, he softened a disciplinary policy that had been “one-strike-and-you’re- out.” Cunningham wrote in his open letter that Armstrong “seized upon in- fractions made by boys and teachers alike as teachable moments to make them better young men and better adults. That model has served Landon well.”


Troubling racial overtones In May, a disciplinary episode with


racial overtones emerged that troubled some teachers and parents. Four white students — including one of the boys punished over the girls fan- tasy league — accused an African American honors student of cheating on a test, according to several knowl- edgeable sources, and pushed the case into the student-run Honor Court. The court deals with matters involving honesty, morality and respect for the property of others. It consists of 13 stu- dents and a faculty adviser, who mon- itors proceedings and reviews judg- ments. The headmaster and others also often review judgments. The teacher in the class, who is Afri- can American, told the court that he had not seen the boy cheat, Cunning- ham said. “Other guys said they saw him cheat,” Cunningham said, “so it seemed appropriate to go forward with an investigation.” Several sources said the teacher did not believe any cheating occurred. The accusers showed pictures of an open book on the classroom floor next to a boy’s foot, sources said, although it was impossible to tell who was in the picture. The student was found guilty by a unanimous vote and sentenced to a three-day suspension and ordered to write a paper. The student’s parents protested, and the judgment was later set aside by school officials, Cunning- ham said. A few African American teachers were so angry at the handling of the allegation that they skipped graduation ceremonies. Landon’s Web site says that “stu- dents of color” account for about a quarter of its enrollment.


‘Police were called’


On the night before the final lacrosse game of the year, against archrival Georgetown Preparatory School, about a quarter of the senior class was in- volved in a rowdy incident that drew police to the campus. Twenty Landon students were punished, including Cunningham’s son.


Cunningham said some boys went to the school to prepare signs for the May 15 game. They also wanted to defend the grounds from Georgetown Prep students, who by tradition seek to paint rocks on Landon’s campus blue, Cunningham said. The Georgetown


Prep boys arrived about 2 a.m., Cun- ningham said, armed with eggs and paint. “Eggs were thrown, a window on a


[Georgetown Prep boy’s] car was bro- ken, police were called,” he said. Cun- ningham said some of the Landon stu- dents, including his son, had been drinking alcohol. A Montgomery County police


spokeswoman said an 18-year-old told officers that a rock had broken his car window. She added that one person was arrested and cited for possession of drug paraphernalia. School records show it was a Landon student. A Georgetown Prep spokesman declined to comment. Afterward, Cunningham said the school sought to minimize any chance that the incident would put the boys’ college acceptances “at risk.” Two boys were suspended, Cunningham said, and the school notified the colleges they plan to attend and excluded them from the June 11 graduation. Cunningham said that others in- volved were required to skip senior class activities, but the punishment was not reported to their colleges. Those who admitted to drinking, in- cluding his own son, were required to undergo alcohol and drug counseling before receiving signed diplomas, Cun- ningham said. Some faculty were upset that the school had not been stricter with the students, Cunningham acknowledged. The punishments were approved by the executive committee of the board of trustees, although Cunningham re- cused himself. He also acknowledged that recommendations that reached the board earlier were more severe, but he would not elaborate. Cunningham said Landon has decid- ed to close its grounds at night before next year’s game as well as caution stu- dents about appropriate behavior. Three days after graduation, Cun- ningham said, a faculty group began to reexamine the school’s programs and how its officials relate to parents and students.


Cunningham said Landon might need to rethink who is admitted to the school and who is allowed to stay. “We hold our students to a very high stan- dard,” he said. But he added that he knows teenagers will make mistakes. “It’s not if they’re going to fall short,” he said, “it’s when they’re going to fall short.”


Cunningham said the school com-


munity shares a clear goal: “Let’s figure out how not to get into this position again.”


birnbaumm@washpost.com straussv@washpost.com


Staff researcher Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.


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