Mike Landry, who founded T.M. Landry College Prep with his wife, Tracey, speaks to students in this photo taken from the documentary film "Accepted."
T.M. Landry College Prep leaders Tracey and Michael Landry.
TM Landry College Prep is seen on the morning of Friday, November 30, 2018, along Rees Street in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. The school operated at this location until a critical New York Times story resulted in a dramatic drop in enrollment.
T.M. Landry College Prep moved into this former skating rink, shown Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, on Moss Street in Lafayette, La., after a scathing New York Times story, but has since vacated the location.
T.M. Landry College Prep Board Chairman Greg Davis speaks to media during a press conference at the school Friday, December 14, 2018, in Breaux Bridge, La.
Flags of Ivy League universities like Yale and Harvard are displayed at the entrance to TM Landry College Prep on the morning of Friday, November 30, 2018, along Rees Street in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.
Cathy Bui attended T.M. Landry Prep School in the hopes of getting accepted into an elite university to better prepare herself to support her mother and disabled sisters.
Adia Sabatier was a student at T.M. Landry College Prep school featured in a documentary "Accepted."
Alicia Simon is one of four students featured in a documentary, "Accepted," about T.M. Landry College Prep school.
Isaac Smith is one of four students featured in a documentary film, "Accepted," about T.M. Landry College Prep school whose leaders boasted of high acceptance into Ivy league and other top tier schools.
Dan Chen directed and produced the documentary "Accepted," following students at T.M. Landry College Prep before, during and after allegations that founder Mike Landry falsified college admissions documents to get graduates into elite universities.
Mike Landry, who founded T.M. Landry College Prep with his wife, Tracey, speaks to students in this photo taken from the documentary film "Accepted."
A private, unaccredited Acadiana school that drew national attention with viral online videos of its students reacting to acceptance into Ivy League universities and again when its founder was accused of falsifying college admissions records is back where it started: Operating from the Breaux Bridge home of its founders.
T.M. Landry College Prep, which had about 200 students in 2018 with plans to add campuses in Opelousas and Baton Rouge, is down to about 20 students taking classes in the home of Michael and Tracey Landry, Greg Davis, chairman of the school board, said Friday.
T.M. Landry College Prep leaders Tracey and Michael Landry.
The school was started in 2005 in the Landrys' home to offer the children of working-class and minority families an alternative to traditional public schools that many times failed to prepare students for acceptance into the elite universities seen as the best opportunity to lift them out of poverty.
"If you look at the data on schools in north Lafayette, the numbers are just atrocious," Davis said. "So many kids are not being served by the education system."
Many of those students, he said, couldn't get into college. Many who did, weren't prepared to succeed in college. The Landrys and their supporters changed that, Davis said.
An explosion of attention and enrollment happened in 2017-18 with online videos showing minority students and classmates' reactions to being accepted to schools like Harvard, Stanford and Yale. School leaders boasted that 100% of its students were accepted into colleges and universities, drawing media attention from national newspapers and TV stations and appearances on shows like "Ellen."
Flags of Ivy League universities like Yale and Harvard are displayed at the entrance to TM Landry College Prep on the morning of Friday, November 30, 2018, along Rees Street in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.
But the high soon was followed by a crash when the New York Times in November 2018 published an investigative piece based in part on interviews with former students, parents and teachers who alleged the Landrys doctored or required students to falsify admissions applications and transcripts to bolster acceptance into prestigious universities.
Some students also alleged Michael Landry physically, verbally and psychologically abused them and their classmates.
A parent filed a report with the Breaux Bridge Police Department in 2017 alleging Michael Landry choked her son, but it does not appear he was charged.
Louisiana State Police conducted an investigation of the abuse allegations and, according to news reports, turned over that information to the district attorney's office in St. Martin Parish. But no charges other than a 2012 case appear in a search of criminal cases with the St. Martin Parish Clerk of Court Office.
In 2012 a student accused Michael Landry of choking, whipping, slapping and slamming him to the floor when he was 12 years old. Michael Landry was charged in that case with one count of simple battery, a misdemeanor to which he pled guilty. He was sentenced to 90 days in the St. Martin Parish jail, which was suspended, and a year of probation.
The FBI in 2019 investigated the admissions allegations at the school. Davis said he and others associated with the school were interviewed, transcripts, files, emails and text messages were confiscated by the FBI, he said, but he hasn't heard anything since.
An FBI spokesperson told The Acadiana Advocate on Friday that, per Department of Justice policy, "the FBI does not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation."
"Here we are, four years later," Davis said, "and no charges have been brought against anyone, against any of us."
Before the bottom fell out of T.M. Landry with the New York Times story, film director Dan Chen, who at the time was at Jubilee Media, heard about the viral college admissions videos and arranged to visit the school to promote its successes by following four students, returning every few weeks or months, for over a year and a half.
Dan Chen directed and produced the documentary "Accepted," following students at T.M. Landry College Prep before, during and after allegations that founder Mike Landry falsified college admissions documents to get graduates into elite universities.
After some time, Chen said he felt his film crew's relationship with Michael Landry becoming strained, perhaps because they were around longer than other media. Maybe Michael Landry felt the crew was poking around, he said. They didn't know why Michael Landry was so sensitive at the time.
After returning to Los Angeles after one trip, a teacher at the school emailed saying she was no longer with the school and did not want to be in the film. The next time the film crew was in Louisiana, they met with the teacher and a group of parents who described what was in the New York Times story. The crew halted the project, opting not to do an investigative takedown piece.
"We put the hard drives on the shelf and walked away from the project," Chen said.
Cathy Bui attended T.M. Landry Prep School in the hopes of getting accepted into an elite university to better prepare herself to support her mother and disabled sisters.
Alicia Simon is one of four students featured in a documentary, "Accepted," about T.M. Landry College Prep school.
But students asked the film crew to return and they decided to continue with the story, not just about the allegations, but about the students -- Cathy Bui, Adia Sabatier, Alicia Simon and Isaac Smith -- and their journeys after the bombshell story.
"I wanted to explore the complexity of the students in this situation, regarless of the New York Times story," Chen said Thursday. "I wanted to explore what it's like to be in a small town and gunning for this dream" that people don't expect them to achieve, and to explore how dark the world can be at times.
"Accepted" is the documentary film Chen directed and produced. It premiered in 2021 at the Tribeca Film Festival and spent a year on the film festival circuit.
Isaac Smith is one of four students featured in a documentary film, "Accepted," about T.M. Landry College Prep school whose leaders boasted of high acceptance into Ivy league and other top tier schools.
Adia Sabatier was a student at T.M. Landry College Prep school featured in a documentary "Accepted."
The film made its public release July 1 in select movie theaters, in Los Angeles and New York City, and on itunes, Prime Video, Apple TV and on-demand streaming services nationwide.
"Accepted" takes the viewer on a roller coaster ride of emotion, from the highs of the online videos showing students' genuine joy at being accepted into top-tier universities to the lows after the story broke and many lost faith in the T.M. Landry program, leaving some without direction.
"The film," Chen said, "shows how cut-throat this kind of college admissions (system) is."
He thanked residents of Breaux Bridge and Lafayette for their hospitality and generosity during the filming and urged them to watch "Accepted."
"I hope people in the community get to watch it and discuss it and decide for themselves what they think is right," Chen said.
Fallout from the New York Times investigation devastated the school's enrollment. The school moved from a two-story modern building in Breaux Bridge to a metal building, a former skating rink, on Moss Street in Lafayette, eventually vacating that location to return to the Landrys's home.
TM Landry College Prep is seen on the morning of Friday, November 30, 2018, along Rees Street in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. The school operated at this location until a critical New York Times story resulted in a dramatic drop in enrollment.
T.M. Landry College Prep moved into this former skating rink, shown Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, on Moss Street in Lafayette, La., after a scathing New York Times story, but has since vacated the location.
The school's corporate registration as TM Landry College Prep with the Louisiana Secretary of State Office was revoked in October 2020 by the state, according to online records. No reason was provided and calls to the state office were not returned last week.
The Landrys re-registered the school with the Secretary of State in December 2019 as T.M. Landry College Prep and Personal Empowerment Academy under a new charter number. As of Friday, the new corporation was listed as active but not in good standing for failing to file an annual report.
Davis, who was the long-time director of the Cajundome in Lafayette, earning accolades for his handling of the sudden influx of evacuees to the Cajundome from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, has long been an advocate of improving educational opportunities for Black students and other disadvantaged youth. He was and remains a staunch supporter of T.M. Landry.
Since 2019, the year following the New York Times story, 100% of T.M. Landry graduates, Davis said, are either in college or graduated from college. Students from the graduating classes of 2019-22 were admitted into universities like Duke, Boston University and Seton Hall, data provided by Davis show.
T.M. Landry College Prep Board Chairman Greg Davis speaks to media during a press conference at the school Friday, December 14, 2018, in Breaux Bridge, La.
Students who stick with the T.M. Landry program, he said, succeed in college. Some who don't, he said, struggle.
David said his biggest disappointment is that the New York Times story so ruined the school's reputation that it no longer serves the large number of students who need the help.
"It mean these Black children are stuck in these low performing schools," he said. "Many of them, if they do graduate, are not college ready and are not going on to college. Many, when they go to college, are not able to complete it because they're so far behind academically. That was the student population we targeted."
Ironically, parents and former students of T.M. Landry alleged the same of that prep school, that its graduates weren't college ready and weren't able to compete academically at elite universities.
Email Claire Taylor at ctaylor@theadvocate.com.
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