🎙️Episode 29: The T.M. Landry Scandal: The Truth Behind the "Miracle School"

Content Warning: This episode includes discussions of alleged physical and emotional abuse involving minors.

T.M. Landry College Preparatory School looked like a miracle.

A tiny private school in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, was sending mostly Black students from working-class families to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Brown, and other elite universities. Viral college acceptance videos turned the school and its founders, Michael and Tracey Landry, into a national success story.

Then, in 2018, The New York Times published an investigation alleging physical and emotional abuse, falsified transcripts, invented extracurricular activities, and fabricated or exaggerated hardship stories on students’ college applications.

In this episode of Black Coffee, Crime & Crochet, Jasmine goes back to the beginning: who Michael and Tracey Landry were before T.M. Landry, how their unconventional school became a viral sensation, what former students and families say was happening behind closed doors, how elite universities responded, the investigations that followed, and what happened to the students afterward.

But this story is bigger than fraudulent college applications.

Why did so many people need the T.M. Landry story to be true? And why does Black excellence have to look like a miracle before America pays attention?

Sources & Further Reading/Viewing

• Katie Benner & Erica L. Green, Miracle Children: Race, Education, and a True Story of False Promises
• The New York Times, reporting by Erica L. Green and Katie Benner on T.M. Landry College Preparatory School
• Accepted, documentary directed by Dan Chen
• Additional local reporting, interviews, public records, police and court records, and investigative materials are cited and attributed throughout the episode.

A note on reporting: Allegations are identified as allegations where appropriate. This episode distinguishes between allegations and personal accounts, documented legal proceedings, and the findings or outcomes of investigations.