SACRIFICE Softly, surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon’s dead body moved out towards the open sea.
Jordan Park. Jack Reid. Nate Bronstein. Jonah Anschell. Matthew Clemson. Kyle Miller. Claudio Mandia. Carl Worth.* Say their names. Today, Memorial Day, as we remember countless Americans who gave their lives for our country, and as we contemplate our complicity in allowing their deaths to protect the geopolitical industrial structure, we also remember children who are dead after taking their own lives. Look at their faces. We see our children. We see children who did not have the chance to build their foundations, who did not have the chance to grow their armor. We failed them. We allowed our schools to be overtaken by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). But we do not allow it anymore. These children were marooned in the shadow of the SEL/DEI/ESG/CEI (“SEL”) monster without adults. If we do not want more of our children to die, we must be the grownups.
When hope dissolves leaving only tragedy, NAIS and Independent X School gaslight – something they have turned into an art form. Latin School of Chicago (LSC) claimed there was nothing it could have done and smeared Nate as mentally ill.
This, despite LSC administrators having prior knowledge of multiple specific student safety issues, including documented bullying against Nate Bronstein, and simply failing to do anything about it – the very definition of gross negligence.
So, too, was the case at Lawrenceville where Jack Reid was defamed with false sexual assault allegations – the most serious accusations that can be leveled against a boy.
Worse still, in its own report documented by NYT, “Lawrenceville School never told Jack or his family — or anyone else — that the investigation had concluded that the rumors involving a sexual assault were utterly false.” LSC and Lawrenceville knew allegations involving Nate and Jack were false and intentionally did not exonerate these children.
It did not matter that Jack Reid’s father attended St. Alban’s (DC) and his grandmother was on the boards of Riverdale Country (NY), Masters (NY), and Rye Country Day (NY) – or perhaps that was exactly why.
Lawrenceville let children continue to call Jack a rapist. A RAPIST. Latin School of Chicago contacted Nate’s parents and put Nate on notice allegedly because he did not wear his mask correctly but did nothing when classmates used the n-word and bullied Nate.
Intentional refusal by Latin School of Chicago and Lawrenceville to quell false accusations allowed rumors to fester and grow, proximately causing Nate and Jack to take their own lives.
With NAIS Board Chair Latin School of Chicago Headmaster Randall Dunn at the helm, Latin School of Chicago prioritized insurance coverage over the safety and lives of the children in its protection. This disparate and callous intentional behavior is disgustingly the result of SEL restorative justice policies mandated by NAIS.
An excuse to pick and choose whom they punish, NAIS is careful to use the phrase “restorative justice” sparingly. You are not going to find any NAIS tweets using the phrase. Independent X School sometimes says the quiet part out loud, usually in its DEI reports (see Lawrenceville’s DEI Report at page 2). NAIS vilifies the “oppressor” class allowing them to be targeted, ironically under restorative justice as “belonging.”