<p>has anyone here heard the story of Nicholas Axelrod Panagopoulos at phillips andover? it was another one of the more “darker” moments in phillips academys history. i will put some info if anyone is interested in hearing the story</p>
<p>zwaga, zwaga, zwaga, that’s a very funny name. You must be a fun person.</p>
<p>edit for being mean</p>
<p>i found and interesting article you might want to read it <a href=“https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&doctype=cite&docid=68+UMKC+L.+Rev.+459&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&key=f4f8658aff0b88259e75ac55d910e9b0[/url]”>https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&doctype=cite&docid=68+UMKC+L.+Rev.+459&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&key=f4f8658aff0b88259e75ac55d910e9b0</a></p>
<p>and read this one to its on the left hand side of the first page and it contiunes on page 12 so just scroll down to page 12</p>
<p><a href=“http://pdf.phillipian.net/1999/01151999.pdf[/url]”>http://pdf.phillipian.net/1999/01151999.pdf</a></p>
<p>Zwaga, if you’d actually read the article I posted, you’d know Andover closed that very week, cancelled finals, and sent kids home to vacation early. It’s a really supportive community here. Remember, his death wasn’t because of the program - again, if you read the article I posted, you’d know Zack loved the program - all-school president, co-head of Philomathean Society, Varsity athlete, enthusiastic class participant…</p>
<p>As for “the story of Nicholas Axelrod Panagopoulos at phillips andover,” well, is it really that surprising he was asked to leave? He consistently failed courses and cut class. That’s not ADHD, that’s laziness. I have friends here with ADD who work harder than anyone else I know, do very well, and certainly attend all their classes. Is it unfortunate that this one kid was asked to leave halfway through his senior year? Yes. Should he either a) have put in the effort to go to his classes, or b) gotten out when he was encouraged to the first time? Probably yes.</p>
<p>I’d hardly call that case a darker moment in Andover’s history. The school asks a lazy student to leave who just happens to have ADD, a condition plenty of kids here have and succeed despite said condition. That’s not a big deal.</p>
<p>yeah man i read it i should edit that post, i read the whole thing and i also read a couple other articles in the phillipian that mentioned him. He was one hell of a debater! As for the Nicholas story i know he was failing from the start but im just saying it is pretty ignorant of the school to expell him a month or so before university application and he only had about 5 more months to go so it would hurt that much to just keep the kid, you have no idea how he probaly felt getting kicked out at with 5 months to school left and he never even got the chance to grad with his friends that he was with for 4 years, you gotta have some sympathy for the guy it must have hurt him alot. all im saying is they should have atleast kept him he was there since freshman and it really bothers me that he got kicked out in his senior year, if they were planning on expelling him they should have atleast just expelled him at the end of grade 11 so he could atleast applky to university in his senior year. his parents probaly spent a fortuane putting him through the school and its kind of all goes down the drain that they kicked him before university applications and everything</p>
<p>Well said, TomTheCat.</p>
<p>Yeah, poor kid. Someone should have “fixed” that one for him too. I’m sure it wasn’t his fault he had eleven unexcused absenses and was failing. And they did ask him to leave twice before, even going so far as to say that he should be placed elsewhere. Should they have refused to take him back junior year? Probably so. But maybe (and I don’t know all the facts in the case) his grades didn’t warrant expulsion at that point. I’m sure there is some rule that says if your grades drop below such and such, you’re out and if they are just above that, they have to keep you. It sounds like they gave him plenty of warnings to shape up or ship out.</p>
<p>Being brilliant isn’t enough. </p>
<p>I don’t know what this has to do with the OP. Is it supposed to be an example of kids “falling through the cracks” at larger schools like exeter and andover? From the articles I read, it sounds like this kid jumped feet first into the cracks. Oh, but it wasn’t his fault. I forgot. He just happened to be out of his room during study hours and just happened to keep the video games, etc etc. Was the school responsible for “accommodating” that according to ADA? Thankfully, the second judge said no.</p>
<p>you people dont seem to be very nice he is only a kid you got to have some sympathy for him he is obviously a smart kid if he got accepted. not everyone is the same and everyone struggles with different things. im just saying they should have expelled him at the end of his junior year, instead of taking him for senior and then expelling him and ruining his chances at university. he must have been playing way too many video games he only won a commendation from National Merit Scholarships. and by the way expelling a person for having ADHD whcih was the original reason why they expelled him is considered discrimination in this country and it dosnt go well in lawsuits.</p>
<p>No, they expelled him because he was failing and skipping classes. I don’t know why they took him back for senior year; maybe his grades were just barely high enough and they wanted to avoid a lawsuit. ironic eh? :)</p>
<p>g’night</p>
<p>it does say if you read the full article in the first link i posted though that he was origanlly expelled for being diagnosed with ADHD and they just used the skipping classes and low marks as a “skape goat” to avoid being acused of discrimantaion.</p>
<p>good night man</p>
<p>I totally agree with TomTheCat (I love that username, don’t you? I used to love Tom&Jerry.) He failed two classes in his first year and he had 11 absences. That’s pretty scary, even for a person with ADHD. I have a boy in my class who has SEVERE ADHD (it’s really hard to work with him because he’s always off-task and he’s always banging the table and stuff) but I don’t think he’s failing, and he’s been absent… I think only three times this year, and all of them were due to the fact that he was sick. Now, he’s not the brightest person in the world; he gets pretty low grades, but it’s not entirely his fault and he’s doing his best. He’s not failing classes or anything. Plus, he’s pretty good and creative writing, so that’s something that he does well.
Plus, Nick (referring to the person in the article) was told to do better and was given help for THREE YEARS. I mean, any person with any common sense would understand that s/he was going to have to do better and they’d want help, especially if they wanted to succeed.
Honestly, he was given the chance to withdraw twice, so I don’t think I feel very sorry for him. Plus, it says that he got high SAT scores and everything, so he must’ve at least had some talent. AND, people HAVE overcome ADHD before (wait. That is possible, isn’t it? Because Michael Phelps had it and… I don’t think he has it now.)
I don’t know. I don’t feel too sorry for the guy.</p>
<p>I thought that the story about Nick was interesting and sad-all-around. A law firm wrote it up for its reaching points, scroll down within this link for a summary with lots of details about the sequence of events, just what the boy and Andover did, and how it turned out in court:
[Edwards</a> Angell Palmer & Dodge - Newsstand](<a href=“3 - Spodek Law Group Spodek Law Group”>3 - Spodek Law Group Spodek Law Group)</p>
<p>It seems clear that Nick was a smart boy but was at the wrong school, as Andover told him and his mom early and often, all the while trying to accomodate his disability. I take this as an extreme example of the wrong fit. </p>
<p>From the article:
“The smoking gun at trial was that phone records showed that he spent 360 hours in October – an average of 12 hours a day – on the phone or logged onto the Internet.”</p>
<p>Haha, lemonade1, I think that means case closed!</p>
<p>Great summary, lemonade1. </p>
<p>This case seems to be a great example of the “prestige” issue. That is, a parent and/or student who insists on enrolling in a top level boarding school when it is clearly not the right choice. </p>
<p>I do feel sorry for this kid, but not because he was expelled his senior year. I’m sad that he was placed in a situation that he could not, for whatever reasons, handle. I don’t think Andover did anything wrong, especially after reading the summary lemonade posted. I believe Andover settled the damages claim by refunding the senior year tuition. Good for Andover. I hope the student is doing well and is in a profession that allows him to exploit his strengths while minimizing his weaknesses. (Everyone has them, you know.)</p>
<p>
What a wonderful point for us all to keep in mind. Thanks, neato!</p>
<p>neato i dont find you to be a very nice person your very rude and mean. have even been a student at andover? if not i wouldnt be putting others down this isnt the place… you have to have some sympathy for this guy they kicked him out on his SENIOR year that ruined probaly all the universities he was applying to, that could have destroyed his life. even the judge said “i dont like that he was expelled in his senior year” “that bothers me”. it really buggs me to because hes only a kid and that probaly hurt him alot and theres so much going on in kids lifes that its hard to be acountable some times. and i know his PA carreer was bad from the start but still it wouldnt hurt them one little bit keeping him for 5 more months like really what would it do</p>
<p>It will be interesting to know what your reactions will be like if Nicholas were your son or brother? Put yourself in those shoes, reflect, and post. Don’t support a school just because your s/d or you go to it. You can still be a great supporter of your school when you point/acknowledge both the strengths and weaknesses of your school. Losing/winning in court doesn’t mean if one is right or wrong as it may be an indication of the legal team representing a case (eg OJ trial).</p>
<p>I definitely look at it as if Nicholas were my son. And if my son’s school was telling me that a different school would be better for my child, I’d listen and get him somewhere he could thrive. Immediately. I agree with neato (who is a very kind person), I feel very sorry that this kid stayed in the wrong school so long, and hope that he managed to pull it all together for college and beyond.</p>
<p>Ok this is a good example for me to prove my point on why parents should get a WISC 4 psycho-educational assessment or a WoodCock Johnson Interpretive report before taking the SSAT and deciding on what boarding school is right for there child. For those of you who dont know a WISC 4 assessment is a test done by a professional psychologist that is the only accurate way to measure ones IQ intelligence, it covers Verbal Comprehension,Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory, Processing Speed, and a Full Scale IQ. Most importantly what this assessment does is that it shows a student clearly what his or her skills and weaknesses are so they are aware at there limitations and what they can excell at. In Nicholas’s case he may have excelled at one area of his education but may have been very limited in others, and that is why unless you have this assessment or another kind of assessment done by an educational psychologist you are basically walking blind.</p>
<p>I got this assessment done a few years ago and i can honestly say it has helped me so much because i am able to know what classes i can do very well but i also know the classes where i need some extra support in, if anyonehas any questions about this please ask me.</p>