Depravity, “rules for thee and not for me” and bullying culture appear systemic at Chicago’s most elite private school
What do Doug Sohn (Hot Doug’s), Carol Fox Flanigan (Co-Founder of the Lyric Opera of Chicago), William Wrigley (creator of the famed gum company), Lisa Madigan (Former Illinois Attorney General), Donny and Teddi Pritzker (children of current Governor J.B. Pritzker) all have in common? If you said they all attended the prestigious Latin School of Chicago, you would be correct!
Likely none of these famed alumni, with the exception of the Pritzker children who most recently attended the school, have any sense of what has become of their beloved alma mater.
Why even today, the Latin School of Chicago ranks as the third best high school in Illinois out of 142 private schools and nationally, number 141 out of 4,323 private high schools and only ranks below that of the famed University of Chicago Laboratory School as the top independent school in the Chicagoland region, according to Niche.com.
In short, Latin arguably remains the most elite school in the city of Chicago.
Yet nine months ago, 15-year old Nate Bronstein ended his life as a result of cruel and vicious cyberbullying from numerous classmates while attending the Latin School of Chicago. The child-perpetrators, a number of which were privileged children of families named in a lengthy lawsuit filed by the Bronstein family, allegedly have officially faced no consequences. And the former Latin School of Chicago Board Chairman David Koo continues to serve as the Board of Trustees Chair for the Shedd Aquarium. It remains unclear as to what David Koo’s role is in this story, but this will come out in the lawsuit.
Beyond the allegations surrounding Mr. Koo and other community members, not only have the kids involved in the matter not faced any consequences which anyone Chicago Contrarian spoke to is aware of, a “narrative” in the community has developed portraying Nate as troubled teen who struggled to form friendships at his “new school,” was prone to emotional outbursts and generally, “did not fit in” with the Latin culture. Of course all of these comments could not be further from the truth. By all accounts, and Chicago Contrarian has spoken with many parents close to the story, Nate presented as a typical teen with plenty of friends.