In a recent column in the New York Times, writer Maureen Dowd discussed a group of young men who were setting up a “fantasy draft league”. However, this league was not for football or basketball, but for young girls in their community.
Apparently the boys set up a ranking system for how “hot” a girl was and then placed each girl in categories such as “Southside Slampigs”, which means they thought the girls would be fun sexually. The boys then proceeded to concoct ideas about having “sex parties” in which they would score points based on sexual conquests. How is it that the nation became aware of this? The boys published their “league” on the Internet, along with many sexually charged comments on the girls, who were reportedly from neighboring prep schools.
The league was caught before it could go any further. According to one school official:
“It was a regrettable and hurtful activity,” Neil Phillips, head of the Landon Upper School, said through a spokeswoman. “As educators, our role is to help boys learn from their mistakes and make better decisions going forward.”
Will that be enough?
You might wonder why something that happened last summer is making so many headlines recently. That would be because the school in question, Landon, is also the alma mater for George Huguely V, who just this past month was charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Yeardley Love.
These are not the first times that the Landon school has had troubles. According to a recent article in the Washington Examiner, there was a scandal involving 10 Landon students who cheated on their SATs. Another incident in 2007 involved a Landon graduate who was at Duke University, also a lacrosse player like Huguely, who was accused of rape.
Reading these articles and seeing the tragedy of Yeardley Love’s death, makes you wonder why this school’s alumni seem to have trouble differentiating between right and wrong and treating women as people not prey? In my view, paying 28,000 dollars a year for prep school should mean paying for a well-rounded education that included teaching these young men that girls are not “fantasy” sex objects. It seems that Maureen Dowd was right when she wrote: “Time for a curriculum overhaul. Young men everywhere must be taught, beyond platitudes, that young women are not prey.”