Bendel Reflects on Devious Lick Trend: "We all make mistakes"

On September 22nd, The Acta Diurna published a story reporting on alleged acts of vandalism in The Altamont School tied to the Devious Lick TikTok challenge. New information from Altamont’s administration suggests that the acts of vandalism were “accidents."

When asked if any disciplinary measures were taken, Interim Head of School Tom Bendel responded, “Young people don’t need punishment, they need education. We did have educational conversations. Families will pay for the repairs.”

The damage that had been done to the school has been repaired. No acts of vandalism have been reported since Bendel outlined the situation in an email to the Altamont community on September 20th. This reporter, though, did witness a student attempting to take an Honor Code sign from the biology lab at Altamont. His efforts were unsuccessful when he was caught by a teacher while attempting to stow the sign underneath his shirt. 

When asked to address concerns about how these acts may reflect The Altamont School, Bendel answered, “Sometimes we need to be careful not to assume the actions of one or two people reflect an entire community. We all make mistakes. If people didn’t need education, we wouldn’t have educators.”