The Weekly (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - The Education of T.M. Landry - full transcript

[overlapping chatter]

DORAIAN: I was just
so stressed, I'm like,

"What if I don't get in?"

[suspenseful music]

Behind me are my parents,

and my little sister,
she's standing there,

like, looking over
my shoulder.

They have the thing where you
have to have a certain chair

and a certain place in a room.

‐ Wait, wait, wait,
you move over.

BOTH: Yeah.



MAN: No, no.
‐ Oh.

♪ ♪

‐ You in.
ALL: [screaming, cheering]

ALL: [screaming, cheering]

NEWS ANCHOR: You've probably
seen the viral videos

of their students
getting accepted
to Ivy League schools.

‐ I am actually here with
the founders of the school,

Tracey and Mike Landry.

‐ This year we're looking
to go to MIT,

Harvard, Stanford, Columbia.

‐ They were getting
all this attention

from news channels,
they were in articles.

Two students went to Ellen.
‐ You're 16,

and you got into Harvard...
‐ Yes.
‐ ...And you got into Stanford.



[laughter]
[cheers and applause]

‐ What were you actually
feeling in the moment

where you thought, like, "Yes,
TM Landry is the place for me?"

‐ One of my dad's friends,
his son, went to TM Landry,

and he had gotten
accepted into Brown,

and so he was like,
"Oh, this is actually

a system that's working.

Let me just move
my children there."

‐ He seemed to see in us what
we didn't see in ourselves.

DORAIAN:
That was the second time
I've ever seen my dad cry.

I think he was just so proud.

RAYMOND: It's a really great,
feel‐good story.

‐ Let's go.
Yeah, let's go!

‐ But it's‐‐
it's just not reality.

[introspective music]

♪ ♪

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

ERICA: The viral videos came
from a small private school

in an old factory building,

here in Louisiana's
Cajun Country.

GPS: Turn right.

ERICA: I've been an education
reporter for nearly a decade,

and if there's one thing
I've learned,

it's that many
poor and black students

have the odds
stacked against them,

especially when trying
to get into elite colleges.

You know, I watched the videos.
Everyone watched the videos.

GPS: Turn left.
ERICA: They resonated
with people

because they represented hope.

I thought the Landry's
had shattered a glass ceiling,

so I was shocked when
my colleague Katie Benner,

who covers
the Justice Department

got a tip about the school

from a former
federal prosecutor.

Katie and I decided
to go down to Louisiana

to investigate.

[overlapping chatter]

[foreboding music]

‐ Come on in, guys.

♪ ♪

Sit wherever you feel
comfortable.

I would like to just start
kind of at the beginning

and go chronologically...

ERICA: A group of families
wanted us to know

that TM Landry
wasn't what it seemed.

‐ I can talk to you
for hours...

ERICA: They had a list
of disturbing allegations

against the school.
‐ She was scared to attend.

‐ I can't tell you that
I had a clue the first year...

ERICA: Many of them
felt guilty

for entrusting the Landrys
with their children.

‐ She didn't really like it.
But I liked it.

ERICA: All of them
felt cheated and deceived.

‐ ...And identify you.
PARENT: I feel horrible

as a grandparent that I allowed
her to stay there.

‐ Everybody was drinking
the Kool‐Aid.

‐ This is almost
like a damn cult.

♪ ♪

[introspective music]

♪ ♪

ERICA: One of the first people
I visited was Bryson Sassou.

Hello.

He graduated from TM Landry
in 2017

and went on to St. John's
University in New York City.

‐ It was a nightmare.
It really was.

ERICA: What about, like,
your transcripts?

What did that reflect?

‐ A lot of courses
that I never even took.

Mandarin III,
and I got an A‐ in it.

Um, I know nothing of Mandarin.
[chuckles]

Honors Biology,
I got a B+ in it.

Never took it.

ERICA: Bryson said
he didn't find out

that the Landrys had doctored
his college application

until he already moved into
his dorm and started classes.

Bryson and other students
told us that

Mike Landry had urged some of
them to make up details

on their college applications

that exploited negative
black stereotypes.

BRYSON: What he wanted was...
TYLER: A sob story.

‐ A sob‐‐yes,
basically a sob story.

ERICA: This, he argued,

was what Ivy League schools
wanted to hear.

‐ He wanted the grimiest,
low‐down thing.

You not having food
in your mouth,

and you having to sell drugs or
coming from a drug background,

how they looked at black kids
from the South.

He wanted to give them that.

My truth was
me overcoming my epilepsy.

That was my story.

‐ But you're in college now.
I mean, was it worth it?

‐ Was it worth it?

No.

Within my first week there,

I dropped all of
the original courses I had.

I was in courses I had no idea
what was going on.

[suspenseful music]

ERICA: Bryson chose to speak
to us at great personal risk.

If he exposed the truth
about TM Landry,

would he get kicked out
of college?

‐ A high school diploma.

‐ It sucks that
your high school diploma

it's a TM Landry...

BRYSON: [laughs]
It's just a TM Landry diploma.

‐ How did you feel
when you got this?

BRYSON: At the time,
I was extremely excited.

I really thought I graduated,
'cause we didn't know

that this was a fake diploma.

SASSAU: This was the cost
of everything.

ERICA: TM Landry
is unaccredited,

so its diplomas aren't
recognized by Louisiana,

a fact that some families said

wasn't made clear to them
when they signed up.

‐ As a parent,
I feel I let them down.

♪ ♪

I wish I'd have known
what I know now.

[classical music]

MIKE: I push our students
to attend elite schools

not for them to think
that they're better

than anyone else,
but to change their mind...

ERICA: Mike Landry,
a former salesmen

and Tracey Landry,
a registered nurse,

used aspirational videos
to attract students.

‐ The culture, I would say, is
one of a nurturing environment.

‐ All these kids are going
to these colleges.

Unbelievable, you know?
So, why not?

‐ In this state,
in this part of the country,

for black kids going
to Ivy League schools?

‐ As a parent, you go, Wow.

ERICA: The Landrys had never
run a school before.

By 2017, 180 students
had enrolled.

The Landrys said they created
more than a school.

They created a family.

♪ ♪

‐ What's going on here?
Okay, what's the real story?

Let's get behind
the scenes here and figure out

what really happened.

ERICA: Katie and I
kept digging.

We interviewed
dozens of people

associated
with the Landry school.

PARENT:
Mike was selling dreams.

ERICA: Parents,
teachers, students...

PARENT: There's no grades.
There's no transcripts.

There's no proof of anything.
‐ Fake...

What they described
was an institution

focused on ACT prep

that offered little
formal instruction.

Registration fees to start
the children off.

Tuition for the whole year.

But received hundreds
of thousands of dollars

a year in
tuition and donations.

MAN: He would pick and choose
which kids

would get to be
in the videos.

ERICA: An institution
that used its viral videos

to attract more students
and more money.

MAN: It was a misuse
of publicity.

MAN: It was a marketing tool,
you know?

ERICA: And convinced
universities

that some TM Landry students

were more
than model minorities.

They were superheroes who had
overcome impossible odds.

I mean, and there's a reason
that the Landrys

came up with this scheme.

There's a reason
that they changed
their personal statements

for the kids to have
more of a... a...

KATIE: Bigger deficit
to overcome.

ERICA: Yeah.

Black kids always have to have
some deficit to overcome

in order to be seen
as valuable.

[foreboding electronic music]

♪ ♪

FORMER STUDENT: He said I was
in AP History.
I never took History.

MAN: All these classes, TM
Landry doesn't really have.

FORMER STUDENT: He wanted
to put my mom down

as a meth head.

MAN: It was just so,
so bizarre.

JONATHAN: Let me just ask them
where they stand.

ERICA: We're going to be
essentially identifying

two students who‐‐
who are in college right now.

I'm not going to lie, like,
over the weekend,

I had a few moments
where I was like,

I, like, ca‐‐can I do this?

Jonathan: Yeah.
‐ Like, I don't know
if I can do it.

Like, I don't know.
We have more than enough...

If the Landrys had lied

on behalf of some
of the students,

we worried about the backlash

they could face
from our story.

Do you think we focus on only
students who aren't in college?

♪ ♪

‐ [mouths]
JONATHAN: [sighs]
I mean, look,

anybody who reads this story
is going to say,

"What happened to the kids
that got in

"based on these
fraudulent applications?"

It's ju‐‐it's a question
that we have to answer.

♪ ♪

ERICA: My fear is
it's going to impact them,

the kids, more than
the perpetrators.

[ambient music]

♪ ♪

MARY: Just eat your food,
please.

Nyjal, you going
to eat your food.

ERICA: Transcript fraud was
only part of the problem

at TM Landry.

‐ Oh, Lord.

ERICA: We discovered
that a family

had tried to blow the whistle
on the school back in 2017.

♪ ♪

Nyjal Mitchell was 14
when he started at TM Landry.

His younger sister, Sanaa,
was ten.

♪ ♪

‐ I just really
wanted to go to MIT.

It was my dream to go.

I wore the jacket every day,

like, as a reminder
of where I wanted to go.

After the incident,
I really haven't worn it.

ERICA: Nyjal said that
during his freshman year,

he was playing with friends
when Mike Landry
walked into the room.

‐ I had picked up, like,
something like a...

a broom or something,
I don't remember,

and I started
twirling it around

and he came at me
and he grabbed me.

And he, like, had his arm
around my throat,

then he drug me by the hoodie,

and then he put his foot
on my neck.

After he put his foot
on my neck,

he made me get on my knees
and, like,

put my arms around a pole.

ERICA: Where in your neck
did he put his foot?

‐ Here, right here.

ERICA: And other people
saw this?

NYJAL: Yeah.

[solemn music]

♪ ♪

ERICA: When Nyjal
told his parents,

they took him
to the Breaux Bridge police,

and then to the
St. Martin Parish Sheriff

to file reports.

MARY: Mr. Landry
had a private meeting

to tell parents and students

not to have
any contact with us.

ERICA: They ostracized
you guys?

‐ It did my son,
my children.

ERICA: It must've been
very painful.

MARY: It was.

‐ Nobody believes you
and nobody wants to help you.

♪ ♪

‐ We got a copy
of the police report.

She said that Nyjal attempted
to remove Mike's hand,

due to him turning red.

The student said that Mike

stood Nyjal up and placed him
against a wall

and continued to choke him.

Second witness statement.

A parent says that her son

told her that Michael Landry
choked Nyjal Mitchell.

MARY: Their words to me were
that my case was closed

because there
was not enough evidence.

How do you look
to your son in the face

every day and tell him
that we've done everything

that we were
legally supposed to do

to stop a predator
from hurting you

and nothing happens?

♪ ♪

FORMER STUDENT: Sometimes
I would see him choke people.

ERICA: More than a dozen
other students told us

they witnessed physical abuse
at the Landry school.

Students being choked...
‐ Picked them up

and body‐slammed them...

ERICA: And slammed on desks.

♪ ♪

In one case, a child
with a disability

was said to have been put
into a trash can.

‐ Just go straight at you
like that.

ERICA: But the most
common form of punishment

was sustained kneeling.
‐ Get on your knees.

ERICA: On a bathroom floor,
on hot pavement, on rice.

‐ And I could barely stand
when I got up.

It felt humiliating.

ERICA: Former students said
that Mike Landry told them

that if they crossed him,

he'd block their chances
of getting into college

by giving failing grades
on their transcripts.

‐ ...Something's wrong
with that issue.

ANA: I remember him saying
like,

"If any of y'all em‐effers try
to leave this effing school,

I'll eff up your transcripts."

‐ He would say that he would
just make it to where

you literally
couldn't get into college.

‐ Tracey and Mike Landry,
how's it going this morning?

‐ Oh, it's great.

RAYMOND:
Even the success stories

are still broken in some way.

So yeah, it seems like it's
a tough love type of thing

from the outside, that we're
all getting whooped into shape

and coming out better people,
but we're really not.

♪ ♪

ERICA:
The kids are‐‐are scarred
and they're traumatized.

They‐‐they'd hold them
hostage.

And it didn't
have to be that way.

A lot‐‐these kids are smart.

They could've done it
on their own

and someone cheated them out of
the opportunity to do that.

‐ I hope that he recognize

that he messed with my brother,

and he messed
with the wrong brother.

He messed with the wrong son,

he messed
with the wrong family,

he messed with the wrong town.

ERICA: For weeks
we've been listening

to family's allegations of
fraud and abuse at TM Landry.

Now it was time to give the
Landrys a chance to respond.

Where is Mike Landry?

‐ He's not returning our calls.
‐ Come on, man.

[cell phone rings]
‐ It's him.

‐ Oh, my God.

Hello?
ERICA: The phone call
lasted over an hour.

How does that happen?
If they have, you know,

Mandarin III on a transcript

and they've never taken a day
of Mandarin in their lives.

MIKE: Well, I don't know
how they did that,

so, uh, I can't say none
of those things there
and, uh...

‐ Aren't‐‐don‐‐don't you
manage the transcripts?

Don't you send them off
and‐‐and compile them?

MIKE: Yes,
I‐‐I'll compile those and...

ERICA: Mike Landry's answers
were inconsistent

and didn't always make sense.

We asked him about
the abuse allegations.

Making students kneel on the‐‐
on‐‐on their knees

for long periods of time or‐‐
MIKE: No, no, no. No.

If I can think
and I can identify

that you don't understand,

I'm going to tell you
to kneel.

‐ How do you square
corporal punishment

in your school with this idea

that you're building
self‐esteem?

MIKE: Uh, I'll give you that.
That's a great one.

I appreciate you asking
that question,

'cause that changed years ago.

And remember,
the allegation, that was‐‐

I can't say when, but I know
for sure it was probably

over five years ago.

KATIE: It was 2017.

February.
MIKE: No, no, that right here,

that was‐‐I didn't do anything
in that one.

‐ Okay.
MIKE: I'm talking
about the first time.

Uh...
ERICA:
Mr. Landry surprised us

by mentioning
an earlier allegation

we weren't aware of.

MIKE: What ended up happening
was that, uh,

my cousin came in, uh...

She came in and she said‐‐
she opens up the door

and she says, "Mike, uh,
you need to whip him.

"Uh, he curses me out
all the time."

Because we were family.
That's when I paddled him.

Because the mom told me to,

'cause they were living
by themselves

or whatever the case is,
I don't remember exactly.

ERICA: Okay.

This is real.

♪ ♪

ERICA: Katie looked
into the allegation

Mr. Landry
mentioned on the phone.

He hadn't told us
the whole story.

In 2012, a mother took her
12‐year‐old son

to file a police report

after noticing bruises
on his back and bottom.

A lot of what's
in the complaint

sounds strikingly similar
to Nyjal's police report,

but it happened
four years earlier.

The child said Mr. Landry
choked and slapped him

and stepped
on his neck and stomach.

He also said that Mr. Landry
made him eat rat feces.

Mike Landry eventually
pleaded guilty

to simple battery.

He served one year probation
and was ordered to attend

an anger management class.

But he kept teaching.

How did the Landrys
get away with this?

Well, it's mostly because
Louisiana allows schools

to operate without
any state oversight

if they don't accept
government funding.

The reason the state officials
didn't see the red flags

is that to them,
TM Landry doesn't even exist.

KATIE: So you can just take
this next right.

ERICA: We wanted to give the
Landrys another chance

to respond before
we published our story,

so we returned
to Breaux Bridge.

We didn't know what to expect.

Okay.

[suspenseful music]

Before the cameras
were allowed in,

the Landrys gathered
a group of students

to help defend the school.

‐ What's your ACT score?
STUDENT: Thirty‐two.

‐ Twenty‐seven.
STUDENT: Twenty‐seven.

STUDENT: Thirty‐one.
‐ Twenty‐eight.

‐ Thirty.

MIKE: Do we do everything
that society says?

Not even close.

The state of Louisiana has more
African‐Americans in prison,

boys, than anywhere else
in this country.

My brothers were drug dealers,

and I wish that somebody had
put my brothers in kneeling.

KATIE: How many have had to‐‐
‐ Because maybe they wouldn't
have had that.

Say it again.
KATIE: How many of you
have had to kneel down?

♪ ♪

TRACEY: Our students,
they're family.

Most of them have slept
at our houses.

It's like trying to get stuff
that isn't here.

‐ Write whatever you
want to write about us

on the negative side.

I'll go to war every day
for our students,

but at the end of the day,
my sister,

if we get kids at Harvard
every day,

I'm going to fight for Harvard.

They killed Jesus Christ

because he‐‐
he could save the world.

So I say to myself, "Who are
you compared to Jesus?"

Nothing.

So I stick my arms out and say,
"Kneel me‐‐nail me

to the cross,
if that's what you want."

♪ ♪

In English!
ALL: I love you.

‐ In English.
ALL: I love you.

‐ In Mandarin.
ALL: [speaking Mandarin]

‐ In Mandarin!
ALL: [speaking Mandarin]

‐ In Russian.
ALL: [speaking Russian]

‐ Check this one off.

Mike‐a‐nese
ALL: Kneel.

MIKE: Mike‐a‐nese
ALL: Kneel.

[suspenseful music]

ERICA: You know what?
It's going to be fine.

These families are ready.

♪ ♪

NYJAL: I want the truth.

I want it to be public
that what happened happened.

♪ ♪

Whatever happens after,
it doesn't matter.

ERICA: Yeah, these people need
to account for this.

These are people's kids.

[tense music]

NEWS ANCHOR: Bombshell report
in The New York Times

says the school not only lied
about the accomplishments

of its students, but also
fostered a culture of fear

with alleged physical
and emotional abuse.

[moving car honking]

♪ ♪

MARY: Did you see?

[introspective music]

MARY: Nyjal Mitchell on the
cover of The New York Times.

SANAA: That handsome face,
it's my brother.

♪ ♪

MARY: He thought
you were weak,

and he had no idea
what was inside.

♪ ♪

And your voice
and your strength

is what is going to
bring him down.

♪ ♪

‐ I'm proud of him.

NYJAL: I didn't do anything.
‐ You did do something.

NYJAL: No, I didn't.
‐ You did.

You conquered your fear.

‐ He didn't break me.

He put me in a really low spot
for a long time,

but I'm fine.

♪ ♪

ERICA: What do you say
to those people

who for them
this is just going to

perpetuate a narrative that
black children can't succeed

unless they cheat their way,

or black children can't
succeed unless they're broken?

‐ I think that the thing
that this perpetuates

more than anything
is the continual theme

of black children,
black parents, black people

being taken advantage of
by someone

who has more knowledge
and more money than them.

So this isn't
about black people

not being able to succeed,
'cause if anything,

I learned that black people
are, you know, capable

of accomplishing
much greater things

than people in this area
would believe.

ERICA: What would you tell
the girl in this video

that you see today?

ALL: [screaming, cheering]

DORAIAN: There's no reason
for students to be

mentally
and physically abused.

So what if you're getting
into these colleges?

It does not matter
and it does not make it okay.

ERICA: Some TM Landry graduates
are struggling in college.

Some, overwhelmed,
have dropped out.

PA: Eighth Street, NYU.

♪ ♪

ERICA: Others are flourishing.

‐ This is my second year
actually being class president.

I do belong here.
Like, I'm thriving here.

ERICA: That raises
a fundamental question.

Why do these children
need TM Landry

to attract the notice
of elite universities

in the first place?

‐ I'm, like, back in college,
like, and it just feels,

like, so good to be back here.

ERICA: As far as we can tell,

no student who was already
enrolled in college

was dismissed because of the
revelations in our article.

You risked a lot.

BRYSON: I felt that
if I had to sacrifice myself

in order to save a bunch
of other people,

it was, like,
a necessary thing.

ALL: [screaming, cheering]

ERICA: Meanwhile,
TM Landry remains open.

But fewer students
are walking into the school

where Mike and Tracey Landry
still teach.

♪ ♪

MARY: If and when he ever
gets his justice, fine.

And if we never see it,

that's fine too.

Like Nyjal said, he just wants
people to know the truth.

The truth is all that matters.

♪ ♪

[tranquil electronic music]

♪ ♪