New York Military Academy

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  • 1984: Fred Trump bragged that he put Donald in military school to prevent him from “growing up with spoiled kids” and bragged that he made his son ride the subway rather than paying for a car service to ferry him to school. “His father pulled Donald Trump out of a prep school because he didn't want his son growing up with spoiled kids with $40 ball gloves, sending him instead to military school. His father bragged at the sports forum that he had taken the subway and saved $15 car fare.” (New York Times, April 8, 1984)
  • Donald Trump was part of the New York Military Academy’s Class of 1964. “Forget The National Enquirer for a second. If you really want to learn celebrities' deep, dark secrets, read their high school yearbooks. In high school, Donald Trump was voted the Popularity Poll's Class of 1964 Ladies' Man.” (Palm Beach Post, January 2, 1991)
  • Donald Trump’s yearbook identified being a “Ladies’ Man” as his greatest achievement. “Donald Trump wasn't voted most athletic or even the most likely to succeed by the class of 1964 at New York Military Academy. […] And Trump? He was voted ladies man. Said Bekman: ‘There wasn't a lot of time for girls, but he was a good-looking guy and athletic. It was appropriate.’” (USA Today, May 30, 1990)

Students Physically Abused

  • 2003: The New York Military Academy was sued by the parents of a student who had been assaulted in his sleep in an attack known on campus as a 'lock 'n sock' because it entailed clubbing new students with a bicycle lock stuffed inside of a tube sock. “In 2003, the academy was sued by Cristina Kerr of Florida, whose son had been at the academy for nine days when he woke up with blood pouring out of his nose and face. While sleeping, he had been clubbed over the head with a bicycle lock inside a tube sock, a practice known at the school as a ‘lock n sock.’ He suffered a broken nose and lost a tooth and left the school. The suit was settled last June for $290,000. Three students were expelled and pleaded guilty to charges of assault or attempted assault in town and family courts.” (New York Times, February 20, 2005)
  • 2004: A student at the New York Military Academy was subjected to several serious acts of violence from other students, requiring medical treatment at a nearby hospital. “Karen and Michael Sawyer had not heard of that case when their son, gung-ho on the military, enrolled this fall, hoping to be an Air Force pilot. In early December, according to their lawsuit, the Sawyers got a call from a hospital near the academy, where their son had been sent because of a deep puncture wound in his leg, which had bled so profusely it had to be stapled shut. He'd cut himself on a bedspring, their son told them. […] About six weeks […] their son was at the hospital again, this time bleeding from a deep cut in his head. […] ‘Please tell me what's really happening,’ Mrs. Sawyer said she told her son. […] The next day […] he recounted multiple beatings and routine abuse. He said the first injury occurred when his roommate stabbed him with a broken broom handle with a jagged metal edge, the second when a student officer rammed his head into the lock on a metal locker.” (New York Times, February 20, 2005)
    • School officials defended the students who had conducted the attacks, telling the student’s parent that his attackers were in anger management classes and that in the past, violence among students had eventually “gone away” of its own accord. “When she returned to the school to face officials she secretly recorded the conversation. The commandant of the academy, Richard Ashton, told her that similar incidents had been reported by other students who had returned, and ‘everything has gone away.’ He said that her son would be put in a safe place, that the school would conduct its own investigation and that ‘if cadets show they have a pattern of misconduct,’ they would be expelled. “He is in anger management,” he said of a student officer overseeing her son. ‘But that doesn't make him a bad kid. He has a bad temper. According to your son, he took it out on your son.’ She did not send her son back to the school. ‘They have this wonderful mission statement, but the reality is that it's a torture chamber in there,’ she said. ‘The kids are in charge. It's 'The Lord of the Flies.’’” (New York Times, February 20, 2005)
    • Criminal charges were eventually brought against three students over the severe abuse of their fellow student. “A 15-year-old cadet faces a felony charge of second-degree assault in the case, and he, a 17-year-old student officer and the 18-year-old student officer face a variety of hazing, harassment, conspiracy and assault charges. The school says the three have been suspended and are not on campus. In written statements, the school says that it has begun its own investigation into the incidents and its student misconduct policies and that it has a ‘no tolerance policy toward any violence, lying, cheating, bullying and hazing.’ No officials would comment further.” (New York Times, February 20, 2005)
  • Dozens of cases of student violence reportedly occurred at the New York Military Academy, prompting local law enforcement to warn school officials of their duty to promptly report criminal activity committed by students on the campus. “These are not the only allegations of abuse at the school in recent years. Andrew Laskin, the lawyer who filed the lawsuits on behalf of the Kerrs and the Sawyers, says that about another dozen confirmed or alleged incidents have surfaced over more than a decade, some in lawsuits, some in response to lawsuits and publicity. In a letter last February, the local police chief warned school officials about their failure to promptly report possible criminal activity.” (New York Times, February 20, 2005)

Yearbook Photos

NY Military Academy 1964.jpg