Leaders of a private, predominantly Black college-prep school in southern Louisiana are defending the K-12 institution against allegations of emotionally and physically abusing students and falsifying academic records, saying the accusations are untrue and smear the institution’s good reputation.
Michael Landry, who along with his wife Tracey founded T.M. Landry College Preparatory, and board members Greg Davis and Linda Johnson said there were inadvertent clerical errors on some academic records, but there has been neither academic fraud nor abuse at the Breaux Bridge school.
A New York Times report Sunday, the latest in several stories on the subject since last fall, said an unnamed source indicated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing the coed school as a result of the newspaper’s reporting, and that Louisiana state police also are looking into claims that students were hit, choked and physically abused in other ways.
The FBI typically does not comment on whether it is conducting such investigations, and a state police spokesman did not respond to contacts from Diverse on Monday.
Landry, Davis and Johnson said they have not been contacted by the FBI or by police.
The year-‘round day school garnered national attention and has been featured on national television shows such as “Ellen” and “Today” as its graduates have gained admission to elite institutions ranging from Providence, Spelman and Morehouse colleges to Harvard, Emory and Bucknell universities.
According to the Times coverage – based on interviews with dozens of past and current students, parents, former teachers and law-enforcement officials – school officials doctored transcripts and padded some students’ college applications with fake clubs, phony classes and hard-knock-life tales embellished or fabricated to impress college admissions officers.
