In response to the scandal, the school temporarily shut down. Soon after, both its head, Matt Micciche, and the school board’s president, Angela Ang-Alhadeff, resigned. The school now seems eager to move on, with Bezar and one parent telling USA Today that the school “updated its reenrollment contracts to discourage students and families from publicly speaking poorly of the school.” That seems to have frustrated parents of victims, who view the incident as a moral failure that the school appears to be trying to cover up.
“The school knows that they have this deepfake issue, and they all of a sudden add this clause to their enrollment contracts,” Bezar said. “That to me seems a little disingenuous and unfair, and it doesn’t seem like someone’s apologizing.”
The current head, Emile Kosoff, told USA Today that “we continue to prioritize the health and well-being of our students.”
“Our deliberate and intentional approach aims always to ensure that our school community remains informed, continues to heal, and moves forward together,” Kosoff said.
Loophole may let school off the hook
Lancaster Country Day School was first notified of the problem after one of the teen boys seemingly accidentally sent a nudified image of a classmate to the wrong Discord chat. A concerned student saw it and reported the image through a state tip line, which sent an alert to the school early as November 2023.
Rather than act on the images, Micciche, the school board president, did nothing, parents alleged, until more information emerged in May 2024. The next month, the school filed a ChildLine report, but law enforcement did not launch a criminal investigation until parents eventually got the tip.