The Weekly - Series Premiere Preview - Louisiana School Scandal: The Truth Behind Students’ Viral Videos

Producer/Director Samantha Stark | Director of Photography Vanessa Carr | Video Editor Adrienne Haspel | Producer Alexandra Garcia

About the Series Premiere

A school in Louisiana had become famous for its record of placing students at elite universities, broadcasting their success through viral videos. Then, The New York Times published an investigation, uncovering rampant abuse of multiple students, few classes and fake transcripts. The school’s myth burst.

The reporters, Erica L. Green and Katie Benner, found that the school’s founder, Michael Landry, “fostered a culture of fear with physical and emotional abuse,” and “mined the worst stereotypes of black America to manufacture up-from-hardship tales that it sold to Ivy League schools hungry for diversity.”

We spent weeks in Louisiana interviewing young whistle-blowers and their families, and filmed a confrontational exchange with Landry, who denied he had abused his students and lied about their grades.

Complete coverage

DEEP-DIVE INVESTIGATION

Katie and Erica’s November 2018 front-page article on T.M. Landry College Preparatory School unraveled the school’s string of lies and shined a light on its culture of fear. Their reporting is also featured in this episode of “The Weekly.”

abuse allegations

Louisiana State Police began investigating abuse allegations at T.M. Landry two weeks after The Times’s report about the school, and more than a dozen people have reported additional incidents of what they called abuse to authorities. Read more about the police investigation.

CULTURE OF FEAR

Watch more of our reporting on T.M. Landry’s method of intimidation.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Based on dozens of interviews and examinations of legal and school records, The Times found the school abused students and doctored college applications. Here are Katie and Erica’s six takeaways from their investigation into T.M. Landry.