An anonymous Instagram account created to condemn the actions of the Lake Forest Academy Board of Trustees is actively attempting to influence the opinions of community members. Shortly before the start of the 2024 – 25 school year, the Board of Trustees announced that Tom Johnson would step in as Interim Head of School during LFA’s transition period.
The sudden change in LFA’s leadership has caused mixed reactions from the community. As a high-profile change, community members were stunned: What happened?
Many people in the community have interpreted the lack of comment on this dismissal as quiet. “What may come across as quiet is just not something the school or the Board would do,” Johnson commented, explaining how in most workplace scenarios these sorts of things are not openly disclosed.
This account is simply one example of many cases where people have used social media to hide behind a screen, something the LFA community has always criticized. “If you don’t want to say it to someone’s face, don’t say it at all” is a central part of the school’s beliefs. Johnson added, “I am disappointed in whoever is hiding behind the anonymity of social media; it is not something we stand for as a school community.”
Head Prefect Madison Rosen ‘25 said, “In this situation, hiding behind social media is cowardly,” and that “concerns could very easily have been brought to the Board.” She added, “The way they are going about it almost seems childish, the way they are making memes as their posts… [there] could have been a much more mature way to go about this rather than just spreading hate.”
Rosen added that she disagrees with how the account is trying to split the LFA community, noting that the account is “rather divisive in the way it is promoting students to promote falsehoods, especially because the rhetoric used is very inflammatory and accusatory.” Additionally, she stated that “bringing up topics without any confirmation of it being true can lead to a lot of misinformation.”
Since the beginning of the school year, the Instagram account has gained traction, making more claims through posts about “clearing the Board” and even commenting on student-run accounts, such as the Caxy Athletics Team advertising their agenda.
Athletic Director Darrin Madeley said, “I’m all about the First Amendment to free speech and the right to protest, but by crossing into the students’ athletics social media account, that is about our students and their school spirit, you are not about the students at LFA anymore.”
The debate surrounding this anonymous account highlights the recent disruption in the LFA community in regard to transparency, leadership, and respectful discourse. With these events being recent, it is unknown if reactions like these will persist in the future.
