T.M. Landry Prep School Engaged in Abuse and Fraud

[jsd]

High school students took ACT practice tests day after day and sporadically attended classes. Bryson Sassau, who took the ACT three times, said that once he got to college, he realized an education that revolved around test preparation had ill-served him. “If it wasn’t on the ACT, I didn’t know it,” he said.

If you're just teaching to ACT and nothing else, it's not that hard to get good results. 

An independent assessment at Sylvan Learning Center revealed that Mr. Broussard’s younger son was performing two grade levels behind.

“I gave him my son for six years, almost every day, 12 months of the year,” Mr. Broussard said of Mr. Landry. “The longer these kids stayed there, the further behind they were.”

News of the Broussard boy’s low test scores spread last fall, and at least eight parents interviewed by The Times had their own students assessed. Of their 11 students, only two were performing at grade level, while the rest had fallen behind or made no progress. One junior was performing at a fourth-grade level in reading and math.

Dodie Thomas, a T.M. Landry grandmother, said she discovered that her 6-year-old granddaughter had never learned phonics and that she could not read. She played with Legos most of the day.

It would be interesting to see how the college kids are doing, but I haven't found an article that really explored it other than this 

Some alumni, especially those who spent only a short time at T.M. Landry, have been successful. Bryson Sassau did well in his classes at St. John’s, although he had to quit some advanced science and math courses. Mr. Smith also did well, but with debts mounting had to drop out after his freshman year. Another Landry graduate said he feels at home at Brown in his junior year, has maintained good grades and was recently accepted into a program that prepares students to pursue a doctoral degree.

The student in the most viral video, who spent only a short time at Landry, is in his first semester at Harvard. Other Landry students have been admitted to Harvard over the past three years, but the university declined to provide information on their status.


For yet other Landry students, particularly those who spent multiple years at the school, the results after graduation have been disappointing. Some have withdrawn from college, or transferred to less rigorous programs.

Asja Jackson, whose Wesleyan University acceptance video also went viral, decided to leave this month after she said she fell into a depression over her first-semester struggles. She said she “froze and failed” her first chemistry tests and walked out of a biology exam. Her papers, she said, were “childish”

A couple successes and a couple failures, nothing too conclusive. I wish we could see more about results.  But as it stands, spending this kind of money to have your kids physically abused and get fraudulent transcripts printed up seems like a rip off. You can homeschool and make your own fraudulent transcript and save a whole lot of money. And hopefully not have your kids beaten.

[sanantone]

Sorry, I'm still not buying it.  You can't score next to perfect ACT scores and tell me that the kid isn't on grade level.  EVEN with false transcripts, the proof is in the pudding.  What we REALLY have to look at is the record of the kids ATTENDING COLLEGE.  That's the truth.

Also, honestly Sanantone, where one learns has nothing to do with anything.  Warehouse, log cabin, or in little rows like sheep. Makes no difference.

It makes a difference when you're paying over $6,000 for your kids to teach themselves. They can do that at home. Where does that $6,000 go? To pay for electricity? 

Don't homeschooling parents always complain about how school districts teach to the test? If the students didn't take the prerequisite courses that they need to do well in college-level courses, then it doesn't matter how high they scored on the ACT. The ACT doesn't even cover calculus, which is probably why one of their STEM majors is failing in college. The ACT also only includes 40 questions on basic science.

More allegations of abuse and misconduct have surfaced against T.M. Landry College Prep in Breaux Bridge.

According to The Advocate, since December 3, 2018, the Breaux Bridge Police Department has received 10 new complaints against the school.

https://katc.com/news/around-acadiana/st...lege-prep/

How can anyone defend this "school?"

---

Among cases being reopened for investigation is that of Nyjal Mitchell, who initially reported to Breaux Bridge Police in February 2017 that Michael Landry had choked him and attacked three other students, according to his written statement. Nyjal’s mother, Mary Mitchell, said her son was 14 at the time.

https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/new...776b3.html

Terrible!

---

Mr. Landry has a criminal record for physically abusing a student. What the heck? And, the man is lying about it.

In 2013, Mr. Landry was sentenced to probation and attended an anger management program after pleading guilty to a count of battery. Despite the documentation, he insisted that he did not plead guilty or serve probation. Mr. Landry said that the victim was a student whose mother asked him to hit her child, and he said he had eased up on physical punishments.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/us/tm...dents.html

This portrait of T.M. Landry emerged from interviews with 46 people: parents of former Landry students; current and former students; former teachers; and law enforcement agents. The New York Times also examined student records and court documents showing that Mr. Landry and another teacher at the school had pleaded guilty to crimes related to violence against students, and police records that included multiple witness statements saying that Mr. Landry hit children.

This guy is crazy.

He goads black and white students to compete against one another because that is how the real world works, he said.

Adam Broussard, a Landry parent, noticed last fall that his 8-year-old, who had attended the school since he was 3, was writing “chicken scratch.” Mr. Broussard had been happy with the school — his older son had been admitted to Brown after two years at Landry — but he confronted Mr. Landry about his younger son’s progress. Mr. Landry responded that he did not teach sentence structure and just wanted students to love to write.

An independent assessment at Sylvan Learning Center revealed that Mr. Broussard’s younger son was performing two grade levels behind.

News of the Broussard boy’s low test scores spread last fall, and at least eight parents interviewed by The Times had their own students assessed. Of their 11 students, only two were performing at grade level, while the rest had fallen behind or made no progress. One junior was performing at a fourth-grade level in reading and math.

Dodie Thomas, a T.M. Landry grandmother, said she discovered that her 6-year-old granddaughter had never learned phonics and that she could not read. She played with Legos most of the day.

High school students took ACT practice tests day after day and sporadically attended classes. Bryson Sassau, who took the ACT three times, said that once he got to college, he realized an education that revolved around test preparation had ill-served him. “If it wasn’t on the ACT, I didn’t know it,” he said.

Twenty former and current students said that Mr. Landry threatened to give them mediocre transcripts if they ever spoke about what happened or left the school. Mr. Landry put a student with autism inside a closet. He made fun of a high-functioning autistic student who has a condition that causes him to soil himself when he's nervous. Each parent interviewed by the New York Times said that they never saw their child's college application. The Landrys also started recruiting kids who already had high ACT scores.

The graduates face an uncertain future. Mr. Smith at N.Y.U. and Bryson Sassau at St. John’s both plan to take G.E.D. exams as a precaution after hearing that other Landry graduates left their colleges to return to Louisiana — only to find that their high school diplomas were not accepted at local colleges or for internships.

[bjcheung77]

The dooder (piece of poop) has a bachelors degree and his wife has a nursing degree, they're preying on innocent children/youth because of several vulnerabilities. Parents want the best for their children, the Landry's are exploiting that fact to the fullest. They should be jailed with a severe sentence as they are verbally and physically abusing the children - you don't treat teens/youth like that, even if they have difficulties learning.

As a parent, I don't give a monkey's arse if you teach my child and he/she doesn't learn anything, but verbally and physically abusing anyone, I'll kick your arse in... end of story, each time I read these type of things happening, I get very ticked off. I look forward to seeing each and everyone gets their education on track, even if they have to go back for remedial classes, they're still young.

[cookderosa]

<<It makes a difference when you're paying over $6,000 for your kids to teach themselves. They can do that at home. Where does that $6,000 go? To pay for electricity?

Don't homeschooling parents always complain about how school districts teach to the test? If the students didn't take the prerequisite courses that they need to do well in college-level courses, then it doesn't matter how high they scored on the ACT. The ACT doesn't even cover calculus, which is probably why one of their STEM majors is failing in college. The ACT also only includes 40 questions on basic science.>>


Well, to be clear, I'm not disagreeing with the notion that children should be educated. I differ slightly in my opinion as a mother (which is not to say I think the world should operate as I believe) but my opinion is that it is the parent's privilege and obligation to assure their child is educated - but I don't think parents have to "do" the teaching, they can hire / delegate that to someone (public school, private school, tutors, etc.) and I also do not share the opinion that certain subjects must match an arbitrary grade number or be taught at a certain time (thus "on grade level" in my opinion is a garbage assumption). So... all that being said, I am never ok with parents blaming a poor education on the deliverer of that education - step in, step up, and act.

Parents were paying $6,000 because they believed the promise of the school to get their kids into college. It doesn't matter if it was $6/yr or $60,000/yr (and there are many prep schools residential and day schools that cost in that range) Unfortunately, that is the goal of most parents. I've said it over and over and over - the goal should not be getting our kids IN to college, it should be on getting them OUT, which is no small task for anyone - no matter where they went to college. Even the public school system (which by default has become the "measure" by which success is evaluated) fails to produce a product (student) that will both get IN and then get OUT of college better than half the time. The secret sauce, as they say, is something else. So, that a few kids are not successful in college isn't really enough for me to say the school is failing (though it may be, but that isn't really a solid point since that happens in many schools.)

I won't speak for homeschooling parents, but as one, I do think teaching to the test is a poor use of childhood. Testing and learning are different things, and in my home, we do both- they test for credentials and state requirements, but learning is separate and apart. If you're applying to a college that places a lot of weight on an ACT or SAT score, then yes, you need to be able to reach that benchmark. That's never been a goal in my home with my kids- so it's not something we give any attention to. That said, I'm not an idiot- my kids are white middle class with parents that can provide tuition and resources that the kids at Landry don't all have. It's not the same demographic to apply my approach to a school like that. If I were running that school, it would take me a good number of years to readjust and relearn how to pull success out of those kids and what kinds of things THEY needed to succeed. I'm only an expert at raising MY kids.

Still, I find this kind of case study very interesting, and I do hope these kids don't end up with too big a mess.