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Georgetown Prep: media portrayal of school culture not close to reality
The Hill ^ | 09/26/18 | Megan Keller

Posted on 09/26/2018 3:48:19 PM PDT by yesthatjallen

Georgetown Preparatory School, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's high school, decried how it has been portrayed in recent media accounts about sexual misconduct allegations surrounding Kavanaugh.

In a statement, the private school said its community was "being disparaged" and said the portrayals in the media were inaccurate, while also criticizing some media outlets for publishing stories without seeking comment from the school.

"The image that has been presented on social media and in various news outlets depicts recklessness, illegal conduct, and lack of respect for persons. Worse, many blame these faults on institutional indifference," Georgetown Prep said in its statement.

"The temptations, and the failings, presented in these stories are not unique to Georgetown Prep," the letter wrote, saying problems such as "abuses of alcohol and drugs" as well as "sexual assault and misconduct" were being faced by educators across the country "every day."

The high school also rejected that the type of behavior or culture being portrayed in media reports were tolerated.

"It is demonstrably false that such behavior or culture is tolerated, still less encouraged, at Georgetown Prep. In fact, our curriculum is designed to guide students away from these malignant influences, and to guide them through reflection away from selfishness and towards a life of service for and with others," it said.

The statement comes after Kavanaugh was accused of sexual misconduct while he was a student at the all-boys Georgetown Prep school in the early 1980s, one of three allegations he faces, all of which Kavanaugh has denied.

Christine Blasey Ford, a student at a neighboring school, accused the judge of pinning her to a bed during a high school party in the 1980s and trying to remove her clothes.

The New York Times described a culture of heavy drinking and partying by Kavanaugh and his group of friends at Georgetown Prep in a story earlier this week.

Other media accounts have also described Kavanaugh engaging in heavy drinking while he was a student at Georgetown Prep.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: catholic; education; ford; georgetown; georgetownprep; georgetownuniversity; gtown; hoyas; ivies; jesuit; kavanaugh
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I'll bet a lot of Georgetown Prep graduates are asking themselves, 'Why wasn't I invited to these parties?'
1 posted on 09/26/2018 3:48:19 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
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To: yesthatjallen

I actually would like to see an explanation for the yearbook stuff.

What adult approved that? I can’t understand that.


2 posted on 09/26/2018 3:51:30 PM PDT by DrewsMum (The public cannot be too curious concerning the choharacters of public menÂ…(or WOMEN) Samuel Adam)
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To: DrewsMum

I think you mean the yearbook for the girl’s school, not Georgetown.


3 posted on 09/26/2018 3:52:47 PM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: yesthatjallen
Ford was in a clique that laughed at Kavanaugh and the other students who didn't wallow in the mud with them. Her trying to drag him down to her own level is typical of those who all their lives are desperate to be part of the in crowd, who have comfortable, easy, lives, and who strike out at anyone who doesn't agree with what they've been programmed to support.
4 posted on 09/26/2018 4:09:47 PM PDT by Rashputin (Jesus Christ doesn't evacuate His troops, He leads them to victory !!)
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To: DrewsMum

back in the day it cool... it WAS acceptable and as far as Georgetown de-crying characterizations? Maybe today but not yesterday....


5 posted on 09/26/2018 4:13:42 PM PDT by thesligoduffyflynns (get off my lawn)
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To: Rashputin

I believe this Ford thing is a planned out and orchestrated attack .


6 posted on 09/26/2018 4:15:03 PM PDT by thesligoduffyflynns (get off my lawn)
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To: yesthatjallen

I hope they sue.


7 posted on 09/26/2018 4:15:47 PM PDT by CottonBall (Thank you , Julian!)
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To: yesthatjallen

There was a time when the Jesuit order made great efforts and took pride by teaching the classics, literature, Greek, Latin, math , science, rhetoric and logic in a distinctly Catholic moral setting they not only graduated well educated young men from their Prep schools but formulated “Catholic cultured gentlemen”. Those graduates, often working class boys, did extraordinarily well at universities, professional schools and throughout life.
However the Jesuit order has changed dramatically. Its members are no longer the ardent Catholic priests that took their Catholic educational task seriously. The Jesuit order has devolved into what charitably can only be called an unspeakable cabal. Suffice it to say Georgetown Prep and the other Jesuit high schools while remaining popular, no longer have the ideals and mission of their noble predecessors.


8 posted on 09/26/2018 4:16:02 PM PDT by allendale (.)
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To: allendale

But Gtown preppers were not ordinary kids.I attended one of the six Jebbie HSs in the NY metro area. One Loyola Prep was accurately described as the haunts of the very rich. The others were a mixture of blue collar, civil service and white collar families. Of course all were day schools unlike Gtown Prep. It was pricey compared to Jesuit day high schools.


9 posted on 09/26/2018 4:29:11 PM PDT by xkaydet65
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To: yesthatjallen

My son goes to a school that would be considered a peer of Georgetown Prep.

I have to say all the kids in his Junior class are far too busy studying for crap like this. And the few that cross the line are not around long.

15-20% of his grade will go to Ivy League schools. Another 30-40% will go to “near Ivy” schools like Middlebury or Amhurst, or Colgate, etc. Most of the rest are doing Ohio State, Auburn, or Duke type schools.

My kid comes home from football practice at 5:30 and grabs a bite and hits the books until 10:30 every night. Flying lessons, Scouts and ACT study groups fill his weekends.

All the kids at the school are in the same boat.

There is no way that the party atmosphere described in the press could have taken place and Kavenaugh still make it to Yale. There just isn’t enough time.


10 posted on 09/26/2018 4:30:49 PM PDT by Bartholomew Roberts
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To: yesthatjallen

Forget the invites.

Why in God’s name would anyone, alleged vics included, go?!


11 posted on 09/26/2018 4:34:12 PM PDT by mewzilla (Has the FBI been spying on members of Congress?)
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To: Bartholomew Roberts

I went to college with a large number of Georgetown Prep grads. They were good Catholic boys who liked to party (beer drinking mostly, I don’t recall much hard liquor and no dope smoking), but they also studied, and they all did well after college. Some very well. None that I ever met were sex fiends. One was dating his high school girlfriend through all 4 years of college, married her, and they are still married. Another married his college girlfriend, and they are still married. The school seems to foster an ethos of serving others, as I frequently hear that phrase from those guys.


12 posted on 09/26/2018 4:45:37 PM PDT by Defiant (I may be deplorable, but I'm not getting in that basket.)
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To: yesthatjallen

If she weren’t teaching at the collegiate level why do I have the feeling Ms. Ford would be on TMZ’s website for sleeping with 14 year old male students..


13 posted on 09/26/2018 4:55:26 PM PDT by PittsburghAfterDark (The American media: We do what the Soviet media did without the guns to our head.)
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To: Tijeras_Slim

Exactly the Holton-Arms year book was shockingly disgusting. I hope the school folds due to low enrollment.It has never been respected among the DC scene anyway. It will be great to see the” don’t you know who IAm crowd” fighting to get their brats into schools So they can go to dinner parties and brag about where their children attend school.


14 posted on 09/26/2018 4:58:24 PM PDT by cnsmom
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To: allendale

And when did this culture change?


15 posted on 09/26/2018 5:05:56 PM PDT by Irish Eyes
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To: yesthatjallen

Haha. We just called our forty-five yo son who attended an all boys, prep school, I would say similar academically to Georgetown. His was a class of 75 boys and I couldn’t remember the top ten in his class, similar to Kavanaugh, those guys were driven academically and each one matriculated to the ivy schools. I asked him if he could imagine them gang raping girls or assaulting them. He said absolutely not, I asked if he ever heard of any parties like this, he laughed and said no way. Even if there was a party and just alcohol was there and it got back to the school, they would have been suspended, possibly even expelled, which is true. The school was very family oriented, parents socialized together and kids were close, like brothers they walked a very fine line. We knew every kid in his class many very wealthy, and some like us who were making a financial sacrifice for a better education. The school insisted on excellence in every aspect, academic, athletic and personally. He said, if any classmate would have done anything like this it would have been known by everyone in the school, their parents and the school admini within 24 hours and that is true also.


16 posted on 09/26/2018 5:28:47 PM PDT by Toespi
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To: Tijeras_Slim

No the boys school. Were they bragging about excessive drinking in their YEARBOOK? I don’t understand that.


17 posted on 09/26/2018 5:43:48 PM PDT by DrewsMum (The public cannot be too curious concerning the choharacters of public menÂ…(or WOMEN) Samuel Adam)
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To: Irish Eyes; xkaydet65

The tone at Jesuit Prep schools began to change in the mid to late 1980s. It should be noted what happened in New York in the 1980s. Then Cardinal O’Connor was fighting the good fight against the pro abortion politicians and abortionists. Normally you would expect the epicenter of Catholic intellectualism, Jesuit Fordham University and its “Catholic” law school would have provided him with the scholarship and support he needed. The Jesuits not only did nothing to help him but slyly undermined him.

The Prep schools prospered on their reputations and big sports. However if you speak to the fathers who’s sons now or recently attended those institutions (now four not six in the NY metropolitan area) they will tell you the atmosphere and culture in those schools is not the same as it once was.


18 posted on 09/26/2018 5:46:27 PM PDT by allendale (.)
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To: yesthatjallen
I have knowledge of only one Jesuit Prep School close enough to speak about it. The chances of any of this happening there are zero. I realize people (including Freepers) who have never lived in a world where rules mean something, find this hard to believe. I do not. I would have found it even easier to believe back in 1982.
19 posted on 09/26/2018 5:50:31 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard (Power is more often surrendered than seized.)
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To: yesthatjallen
saying problems such as "abuses of alcohol and drugs" as well as "sexual assault and misconduct" were being faced by educators across the country "every day."

Maybe, but in 1980/81/82 not so much. Probably not the best thing for the school to have said.

20 posted on 09/27/2018 12:22:15 AM PDT by blueplum ( "...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017)
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