In the first FBI/DOJ press conference regarding Operation Varsity Blues, the FBI lead agent clearly stated that in some or many cases, the kids did not know that their parents were illegally scheming on their behalf. Some kids knew, like Olivia Jade, but some did not. Beyond the famous names of Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, the name Jane Buckingham has gotten some attention. She was indicted, arrested and charged this week along with the more than 40 other people involved in the scheme. She’s LA-based, and she the founder of trend forecasting and brand strategy firm Trendera. She also paid $50,000 for an ACT proctor to take the test in place of her son Jack Buckingham. She was planning to do the same thing for her daughter Lilia, who is still in high school. Well, Jack is currently in college, and he decided to make a public statement:
The children of marketing executive Jane Buckingham, one of the 40 individuals charged in a nationwide college admissions cheating scandal, are breaking their silence. Jack Buckingham tells The Hollywood Reporter in a statement, “I have been advised not to speak on the matter at hand but what I will say is this,” before writing: “I know there are millions of kids out there both wealthy and less fortunate who grind their ass off just to have a shot at the college of their dreams. I am upset that I was unknowingly involved in a large scheme that helps give kids who may not work as hard as others an advantage over those who truly deserve those spots.”
He adds, “For that I am sorry though I know my word does not mean much to many people at the moment. While the situation I am going through is not a pleasant one, I take comfort in the fact that this might help finally cut down on money and wealth being such a heavy factor in college admissions. Instead, I hope colleges may prioritize [looking at] an applicants’ character, intellect and other qualities over everything else.”
Jack concludes to THR, “It was probably not a smart idea to say anything but I needed to get that off my chest.”
Jane’s daughter Lilia Buckingham also spoke out on Twitter on Wednesday. The high school sophomore wrote, “hello beautiful people. thank u for your support. i love u all.” She added, “i love my friends.” On Wednesday, Lilia became active on Twitter, retweeting a Spongebob meme and a post from Virginia congresswoman Jennifer Wexton in support of LGBTQ marriage equality. She will graduate from Los Angeles’ Harvard-Westlake School in 2021, according to the school’s paper. The influencer has 1.4 million followers on Instagram (though she recently set it to private) and has previously dated actor Jaeden Lieberher, who had roles in Aloha, It and The Lodge.
“She will graduate from Los Angeles’ Harvard-Westlake School in 2021, according to the school’s paper. The influencer has 1.4 million followers on Instagram…” THIS IS WHAT I DO NOT UNDERSTAND. So many of these kids are already on their career paths, because we’re living in the brave new world where “she has 1.4 million followers” and “she’s an influencer” is a major career path. Lilia is what, 15 or 16? And she already has that sh-t figured out. I’m laughing, but it’s TRUE. She didn’t “need” college to get a job. Neither did Olivia Jade. It’s just about the parents’ egos and wanting bragging rights and what have you. I do feel sorry for Jack Buckingham because it sounds like he was truly in the dark, and that he’s perfectly willing to throw his mom under the bus. And I’d love it if he was right, and we can have a larger conversation about the criteria for college admission.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I’m willing to believe this guy, if he also took the test and the results were secretly switched. But if he never took it, and the proctor took it for him…how would he not know? He does sound sincere though, so I hope he is.
What a horrible thing to do to your kids, either way. All of these parents suck.
But he DIDN’T take the test. His mother paid for SOMEONE ELSE to take the test for him. There is NO WAY a HS kid doesn’t know HE is supposed to take the SAT or ACT to get into college.
“She also paid $50,000 for an ACT proctor to take the test in place of her son Jack Buckingham.”
This kid is full of sh!t.
I read the transcripts. Singer controlled two testing centers, one in LA and one in Texas. His people there would collect the tests and then RE DO THEM and send them by courrier wherever they needed to be delivered to. So, Jack could have taken the test himself not knowing his answers would be replaced.
It’s entirely possible that he’s full of it, but if you read the filing transcripts the scam-ringleader-guy actually coaches some of the parents on how to lie to their kids about the shammy-ness so the kids never know they aren’t *actually* earning a spot. The coddling lengths some of these parents are willing to go through to bolster their children’s precious egos is appalling and ultimately does them no favors.
There are lots of parents asking the “Cooperating Witness” how to keep their kids from figuring out what they were trying to do. In some cases the proctor took the test, but in others they were given extra time, had answers switched out or corrected, etc.
How did Donald Trump get into Wharton?
He took the test. He was sick with tonsillitis and couldn’t fly to where the test was being administered (he obviously got one of those passes to take the test without time restrictions), so his mother and the overseer coordinated, had an invalid test sent to him and had him take a test at home (which he thought was valid because his mom told him so) and while he was taking the fake test at home thinking it was valid, there was someone taking the test in the testing facility saying that they were him. This is all in the transcript. He didn’t know or chose not to question questionable behavior. Either way I think he sounds like a good kid who got caught up in his mother’s crap.
I think he sounds like an idiot. I really would love to have a conversation with these “innocent” teenagers who are literally so coddled and ignorant they think you can take a nationally registered, proctored entrance exam in the safety of your home without regulated staff nearby. The utter lack of common sense must be extremely comforting when it comes time to answer for your privileges, and I’m sure that’s the argument they’ll make against having to answer for it when the colleges begin to consider redressing the situation.
@DML, that still sounds fishy. How would you even feel like taking a test that is at least 4 hours long (or more and must be given in one day) if you had tonsilitis? Also, I have proctored ACT and they can’t even leave the room while the test is going on except at a break time. If he had tonsilitis he could have taken the test on another day. These tests are given quite often through out the year at various places. Why would he have flown anywhere to take it when he could have simply taken it where he lived? I don’t totally believe him.
Swack – I agree with you but read the transcripts and the court docs. His mother created scenarios for her son which were caught on wiretap. Yes fishy but fishier things have happened. I imagine when you are leading a life that is completely sheltered and controlled by helicopter parents you might believe anything you are told, for better or worse. If he was in the dark or like I said chose not to question questionable behavior, I am sure this is a huge wake up call to how oblivious he has been. I encourage everyone to read the transcripts, they are extremely enlightening and you can tell which parents and kids knew what just by the wiretaps alone. Now Lori Loughlin – her kids knew everything.
@mtam,
He did not take the test in a hotel room, I don’t know why you keep saying that. The person Singer hired to take the test for him did so in the hotel room. He took the test at home.
Perhaps he did need extra time. Do you know his situation? It isn’t out of the ordinary to need extra time. No one has said how long it took him to take the first test, or how long it took him to take the second test.
I know students who have needed extra time for listening, reading, etc. All we know is that she treated him as if he were stupid and paid someone to take his test. The rest is simply conjecture.
Where is the proof that “he knew” he needed to take the test in LA? His mother told him he was taking it in Houston. I find it hard to believe the majority of highschool kids would argue with their parents about where their testing would be if their parents told them they spoke with the proctor.
Until there is proof, that he knew, I will accept what is stated in the affidavit and in secretly taped phone conversations; that the mother wanted to keep him from finding out what she was doing. And that she is a horrible mother for treating her child so disgustingly.
ElleKaye –
To get extra time on an exam, you must have a f*ckton of medical and psychiatric documentation proving that you have a legitimate medical or neurological condition that impacts your ability to test properly. I know because I have one of the legitimate learning disabilities you can do it for, and the sheer amount of paperwork required for it has put me off from applying for it in some instances. (For the record, I’ve taken the SAT, PCAT, and MCAT in my life.) There are very strict requirements for students who can use disability clearance, and you are still subject to supervision and proctoring. You wouldn’t be doing it at home, either. There is literally no circumstances where anybody with common sense would’ve thought that acceptable, which is why I’m saying he’s a f*cking idiot with a remarkable case of convenient ignorance. At the very least, he knew the rules were being bent, which reveals how sheltered and coddled these people are to consider that your norm.
I’ll give him benefit of the doubt. The affidavit shows excerpts of phone calls between his mom and Singer and she was very concerned about having a copy of the test sent to her so he could take it and believe that he took the test. The paid-off test taker took the actual test for him in Houston and that is the test that was scored on his behalf. I remember being in high school and my mom helping me with financial aid applications and other headache-inducing stuff and if she really would have wanted to con me into something by saying she handled it and just do xyz I probably would have believed her.
I’d like to believe him too but geez if he really thought taking the test in the comfort of his home was legit, it shows he was a) not very bright or b) pretty comfortable with at least bending the rules that normal people have to follow.
I hate to admit this, but my eldest teenage son could have absolutely fallen for this. He is smart, but at times, he utterly lacks common sense and I could see him naively thinking “oh, I’m allowed to do homework virtually, so why not a standardized test?” My younger teenage son would have called BS immediately. But, ahem, as a parent, the child who would have innocently gone along with a crazy scheme without questioning is the child who would have benefited the most from the crazy scheme.
To be clear, this whole thing is horrendous and these parents need to go to jail. I’m the mother of two teenagers and I would give my life to save and protect my children – but I wouldn’t do this. I am not condoning the parents at all – I’m just saying as a mother, I could totally pull one over on my son and I therefore give this kid the benefit of the doubt.
I probably would have fallen for this if it was my mother telling me it was totally fine to take the SAT at home. If it was anyone but my mother, I would’ve been very suspicious. But it’s different with a parent.
When you’re in high school, your parents sort out most major issues. Having issues with a nasty teacher? Parents talk to the principal. Get in trouble at school? Teacher calls your parents to sort it out and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Have the flu? Parents call in sick for you and pick up any necessary schoolwork.
Children (in the majority of households) are raised in a way that conditions them to expect their parents to sort out issues and accept their parent’s solutions. Of course there’s rebellion, but that usually happens when the child sees their parent’s solution as inconvenient (“No, you can’t sleep over at your girlfriend’s house.”) or illogical (“No, I won’t vaccinate you because vaccines cause autism.”). In most situations, a parent’s solution must be sufficiently inconvenient or illogical for the child to defy this conditioning and rebel. In this case, his mother’s solution to the problem (tonsillitis) was neither inconvenient nor illogical and so he had no reason to defy conditioning and do anything other than blindly accept it.
He trusted his mom’s authority.
@LT Your eldest son is probably an honest kid who falls for the naive idea that everyone else thinks the same way he does. It’s a common knee-jerk idea. He probably thinks: “Cheaters are a small minority. Most people are like me and would never cheat so why are we inconveniencing the honest majority to capitulate to a small minority of crappy students.”
Children and teenagers often assume that other people think the same way they do even when confronted with evidence to the contrary. Many immature adults also employ this assumption. Your son will most likely grow out of it.
I couldn’t sleep last night so I ended up reading almost the entire transcript hoping it would put me to sleep, but it was fascinating so no luck there.
This woman in particular bent over backwards to keep him from finding out. He was supposed to take it at one of the centers, where he’d do a phony one in one room with a fake proctor, and the real test taker would do another one in a different room. Then the kid couldn’t fly for health reasons so she had them mail her the phony one and then she pretended she was somehow allowed to proctor it herself.
Some of these kids were totally participants, but it’s hard to fault a sheltered high school student for trusting his mom.
ugh
what a shit mom she is
can you imagine the trust issues
not to mention self esteem issues
if she lied to him about this
he will probably doubt everything else
including his sense of worth
he may be sheltered and even spoiled, but his bubble has popped and there is no recreating that kind of ignorance is bliss living
@M, @Esmom, @Kate
But he wasn’t that totally unaware. He had taken the test before, so he knew taking it from a hotel room with no official supervision was not normal.
And even thought it didn’t happen because he got tonsillitis, his parent had arranged for him to fly out for one day in order to take the test in houston. They all would have had to claim he had to be in the city for it for other reasons, so he was fully prepared to participate in that lie as well. He had to know flying out for one day to take a test (he had taken before) was not official procedure either.
He also had to participate in fabricating in medical and academic records in order to fake a disability and be allowed special accommodation the second time around taking the ACT.
And even after all that, there’s no way he wasn’t struggling through that test like he did the first time he took it, so how could he actually believe he accomplished a much higher score?
@mtam
The arrangements were made for him to take the exam in Houston, one of the two rigged testing centers. He developed tonsillitis and the doctors wouldn’t let him fly. Singer had already made arrangements to fly the proctor to Houston to oversee the exam and reserved the testing center. They were in a bind because the ACT administrators had already sent the actual exam to Houston so it had to taken and sent back from Houston. The mother agreed to let the proctor take the exam for him. Yes, he had taken the test once before, so Singer asked his mother to send over a sample of the kid’s handwriting so the proctor could match it. So the son wouldn’t be suspicious the mother asked them to send a copy of the exam to her home so he could take it there and say they were given special arrangements because of his tonsillitis. Singer then sent a practice test to Buckingham which is the one he took at his home.
He didn’t need to fake a disability, he had tonsillitis and couldn’t fly. He took it from home. His mother lied to him.
This mother is horrible, the things she says about her own son. She should be ashamed. He must be devastated. He is a human being being treated like he is ignorant and worthless. No teenager deserves that, especially from a parent.
@ElleKaye
He got approved for special “proven disability” accommodations BEFORE he got tonsillitis and took the test. The tonsillitis had nothing to do with it. The steps to get approved for that involve getting medical tests to prove he has a disability, providing a history of disability, asking his highschool to provide a history of how they had accommodated that “disability” for 4 years, and other documents.
So he and his family went to the trouble of falsifying all that, so that he could take the test with extended time, and other accommodations—-Even if he believed that was done legitimately, when the time came for him to take the test “at home” (in a hotel room) with his mom as a “proctor”, over one day (so he didn’t question not getting the extended time then?) he didn’t think anything of that? he knew damn well the guidelines he needed to follow, and is now pretending he had no idea he was participating in cheating.
He also knew he needed to take the test in LA. They had to lie to make an excuse for him to be approved to take it in Houston. Again, the knew the official strict procedure of getting tested, yet thought nothing of it to fly to a different city for one day to take a test?–yes he didn’t go cause he got sick, but he was 100% willing to.
@Lucy2
Jack had taken the ACT before, that’s why they needed to forge his handwriting and signature. He knew the rules and procedure were to take the test in his own city, in an official testing centre, under the supervision of an official proctor.
Yet he was going to fly to Houston to do it over one day (he and his parents had scammed to get him special “proven disability” accommodations to take the test over an extended period of days). Instead, he took the test in a hotel room with his mom pretending to be his “proctor.”
He’s an idiot (by his own mom’s admission) but there’s no way he’s that dumb. He had gone through it before, and scored much lower.
Jack did not take the test in a hotel room. According to the affidavit, CW-2 (Cooperating witness number 2) took the test in the hotel room. Jack took the test at home.
I would encourage you to read through the affidavit regarding him. He said he would be willing to fly, but he was to have surgery, so the doctor did not want him to fly, nor did his father. The mother did not want to upset the father by risking him not having the surgery, so he did not fly.
@ElleKaye
I did read the affidavit. I stand corrected on the hotel room detail, i confused that. But it doesn’t matter if it was in a hotel or at home, either way it was not an approved testing facility with an official proctor.
I know he couldn’t fly because of the tonsillitis. I said he was willing to, and him having tonsillitis has nothing to do with him being approved for special accommodation. That came way before he fell ill. Maybe you should take a second look at the affidavit as well.
That’s the thing though isn’t it? The fact that he SHOULD have known, because of how stupid the whole scheme was, betrays two things about this whole issue. The first is that these children are so sheltered and coddled in their privilege that they genuinely don’t think to question things that, for the rest of us, sound immediately suspect from the get go. The second is that, if he really didn’t pick up on the MULTITUDE OF CUES about his parents bullsh*tting all of this, then there is really no freaking way that he was smart enough to get into the college that he got into. But circling back to point one, his privilege means that he never had to deal with that self-doubt and self-questioning at all. As far as he was concerned, he totally earned his place and had no reason to think otherwise.
I will give this kid credit because I feel like he has a sense of self-awareness. I’d wager that he kind of knew all along that he wasn’t as smart as his peers in college. I don’t think that any of the other children of these parents bothered to come forward, and I truly believe it’s because those kids don’t think that any of this matters and that they earned their place as far as they were concerned.
The son, Jack, is the one whose handwriting sample was used. I don’t know if he knew about this scheme. If I remember while reading the indictment, the mom said her son had tonsil surgery and had to take test later. I believe she said on the wiretap that her son didn’t know about it. But what did her son think he was sending the handwriting sample for? Although if his mom told him he do it, (the sample was written while he was at Dr. office with his mom per the affidavit), maybe she lied about what the sample was used for? Maybe she lied to him and said it was for something else…….I guess I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
Could have been super simple- the mom encouraged him to do a practice test to prepare and took the sample. Or told him to practice his entrance exam.
If his story is true, he must feel so betrayed. His mom basically tricked him into cheating.
that or he was willfully ignorant of the lies and his participation in the cheating in order to benefit from it. Read the affidavit He’s not so innocent.
Yeah, I think people are forgetting here – a lot (or at least a few) of these are kid’s who trust their parents – as kids do.
I’m 29 and still trust my parents without doubt (they’ve never given me a reason not to).
This will be an awful learning curve for many of them, that their parents aren’t perfect people
She was actually one of my favorites in the transcript because she obviously thought her son was dumber than a box of rocks. I can see why he would throw her under the bus. He’s definitely one of the one’s that didn’t know.
It’s not definite he didn’t know. He had to have been participating in many lies in order to pull this off. Read the affidavit. He had taken the test before, he knew what the official procedure was. If he’s saying he was fooled now, he’s lying.
You know what. I keep glossing over the ETS accommodation portion of the scam. The 2 day 100% time extension accommodation and trying to convince a doctor that they’re intellectually challenged to get it is definitely a black mark on the kids.
Yeah, I think because it was barely discussed in the affidavit (and you would have to do your own research to know what is necessary to achieve that special accommodation) that many gloss over it. But there is no way in my mind Jack could not have participated in that without lying and cheating for it along with the help of his parents.
I’m not so sure that being a 15 year old “influencer” means you’re set for life career-wise. Olivia Jade notwithstanding, I’d still be advising my kids to go to college.
Exactly. I don’t buy Instagram Influencer as a valid, long-term career.
No. Plus who knows how long Instagram will be around? Just yesterday Instagram and Facebook went offline for awhile and people panicked. You ALWAYS should have a backup. While I don’t see Instagram going away as it is so popular and successful, social media apps do fold. Vine being one of them. If you depend on Instagram for your livelihood, you aren’t thinking long term.
Yeah, look at Myspace. Anyone remember Tila Tequila? She certainly did not find long-term success.
You’d be “advising,” which is appropriate. What they did went way beyond mere advice! Also, Team “Poor Jack.” All these kids who are finding out for the first time that their parents bought their way into whatever schools they’re attending have got to be feeling so betrayed on so many levels. Imagine discovering this way that your parents have basically no confidence in you.
Are people really going to “influenced” by them when they’re 40?
Career wise, no. But she was set to inherit her dad’s Target empire. She also had a make up line like Kylie Jenner who, like Olivia, had rich parents to help her start it and then profit off of it on her own. I can’t believe the bar is so low I’m using the Kar-Jenners as role models.
As a college entrance exam tutor this is ridiculous. I don’t see any way in which he DIDN’T know if his mother literally had someone take the test for him.
Even IF (and that’s a very large if) his mother hid from him new ACT scores when they were released a few weeks after the test was taken
1) his score report he has to look at for the college applications would have all his test scores with the dates they were taken on
2) along with sending along your test scores from the initial websites, you have to manually enter them into your application with the date. So, you know, the completely new score from a date he didn’t take it would be a tip off.
He’s just trying to cover his butt.
I read the transcripts. Singer controlled two testing centers, one in LA and one in Texas. His people there would collect the tests and then RE DO THEM and send them by courrier wherever they needed to be delivered to. So, Jack could have taken the test himself not knowing his answers would be replaced.
ahhh, ok, that takes a hell of a lot of work on their part (but I guess that’s why all the money), but it could potentially work.
Right. I kinda know one of the people involved in Houston. She was paid $5,000 to help coordinate the people coming in town to take the test (I think). She got $5k for each person. She was the proctor I believe. The Feds raided her home and took her into custody. She’s out on bail but will have to go to Boston for the trial.
The sad part is she is a teacher at an urban HS where the majority of the students are eligible for free lunch and are economically disadvantaged. These kids deserve a fair shot and I see her participation as working against the very students she teaches.
Imagine being in a class with this dipshit. You have to feel like your IQ points are falling just by proximity.
Wasn’t it the case that one of the students was given a fake test, at home, with a fake proctor? If it was on the same day as the actual test, he might not have known. High school kids wouldn’t be as suspicious about something like that as adults.
And my god, I don’t think that many adults would immediately think something was up if someone they trusted told them whatever was happening was normal and freaking fake proctors were involved. Especially in his case – he’d had tonsil surgery or whatever – he probably assumed it was a reasonable accommodation because honestly it doesn’t sound THAT crazy at the end of the day.
It’s easy for us to look at this situation and say “oh come on” and in some of these kids’ cases I agree. But there ARE a few outliers that I can believe didn’t know anything was up. And a teenagers pre-frontal cortex is genuinely just not done developing. Impulse control, planning and organizing are just not functioning at the level an adult brain is – even for smart kids.
@Erinn, @Tina
He got special accommodation for the ACTs BEFORE he was scheduled to take the test and got tonsillitis. That means he provided a falsified history of medical and academic documents to get approved for a “disability” accommodation.
He had also taken the ACTs before, so he knew very damn well that taking it from a hotel room with his parents as “proctors” was not “normal.”
Save your sympathies for people who actually deserve it.
I’ve actually seen a ton of Lilia’s posts- I follow some of the kids who were on Dance Moms (that show was a guilty pleasure for me!) and she’s close friends with Maddie Ziegler and also Millie Bobby Brown from Stranger Things. Those kids have a crazy ‘perfect life’ aesthetic on instagram and it’s just fascinates me. Everything is good lighting and sunset hikes and beautifully-done makeup and clothing. They are truly the 1% and show the privileges of wealth with their very existence. While I do feel bad for them for being pulled into this mess like…I’m not losing sleep crying over these poor little rich kids. They will be fine.
I think these rich kids have their parents pay for photographers and social media handlers to curate their social media.
They probably pay a photographer to shoot their children a couple photoshoots a month, make it look candid and might even have someone manage the followers and adding followers.
Again, I believe these girls “influencer” career was bought by their parents too because these girls are nothing special.
I hate when social media is used this way. I really hate it. Everything fake as hell.
They will definitely be fine. But to have someone close to you cause you national (international?) humiliation is a pretty brutal blow.
Is he acknowledging that he is one “who may not work as hard as others” and has “an advantage over those who truly deserve those spots” ??
From Felicity Hofmanns Blog…about grades:
The kid that loved school and had great grades? Don’t be surprised if they tank the first quarter of middle school. Gone are the days of the warm and fuzzy elementary school environment. This is where they are pushed to learn accountability and having ownership over their assignments. It was a hard thing to watch that first “lower than C” grade come home and then later a big, fat F, but we knew that we had to let them see first hand that this was a new game.
LOL
For the students currently attending their preferred colleges who truly didn’t know their place was unearned, I have deep sympathy. This kind of revelation about your parents and your own lack of ability would shellshock anyone … but let’s face it, these kids particularly have grown up as such coddled, insulated, Masters of Unearned Confidence that they must have basically zero coping skills in the face of negative consequences.
*adjusts armchair psychologist label* I think these parents see the children not as independent beings who need to make their own way, but rather as extensions of themselves. It’s not about wanting “the best” for them, but rather that the lives of their children are a reflection of themselves – if the kids fails, they fail. I’m certain it’s hard to watch your kid go through difficulties, but insulating them from all that is not “love”, it’s selfish. I can’t fault the kids for how they were raised (and I’m certain that even the ones that knew about the scam were probably didn’t even feel bad about it, because they were raised to think that they “deserved it”.) but their privileged will allow them to all land on their feet. I’m also a bit skeptical of the punishment these parents will actually receive.
Also re: the results of being raised coddled, as they say – shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves!
Exactly. Their kids would be just fine without going to these colleges. It is not about love or education, It is about the parents themselves. They want to make their lives as aspirational and perfect as possible. The kids did not measure up to their standarts so they cheated the system.
If Jack is telling the truth, i do kinda feel sorry for him. I have read some of the transcripts and there are many parents that tried to hide this from their kids so it is not entirely unbelievable.
I cannot wait until we look back at “influencers” wryly with a smirk like we do at Pet Rocks from the 1970s. There have already been a few articles out there saying that they do not really work as advertisers. And the Fyre Festival nonsense also showed how BS this is. There may be *some* people out there who do have some “influence”, but it seems that every wealthy teen or Botoxed hedge fund wife claims to be one. Getting a free manicure from a local nail salon does not an influencer make.
Completely agree with you, it’s all such bull.
I will always appreciate the Fyre Festival doc on Hulu for introducing me to the term “Trustafarians.”
His mother paid someone else to take his ACT? How could he not know that the score being submitted wasn’t his? Sorry I don’t believe any of these kids who say they “didn’t know.” I also love how this kid wants to have a larger conversation about all this. What do you want to bet he doesn’t want that larger conversation to start with him withdrawing from the school he was fraudulently accepted to?
“She also paid $50,000 for an ACT proctor to take the test in place of her son Jack Buckingham”. Exactly. How could he not know if he didn’t even take the test?! Rich people think we’re stupid.
It’s important to note, as seen in the documents one of the daughters of these people openly bragged about getting away with cheating, one son laughed and told his parents next time they should hire different person to correct the answers so his score would be even higher…..and in the case of Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose, it was confirmed neither filled out their applications themselves and in one of Olivia’s Q and As, when asked about her plans for college, she was so confused, simply she didn’t know what was going on but USC is the plan. ???? Let’s not forget some of them whose parents didn’t use photoshop, participated in staged sports pictures.
I’m not sure it’s only about bragging rights in every case. If I’m Lori Loughlin looking at Olivia, I’m TERRIFIED that she’s going to go the way of the Kardashians or Paris Hilton and just living a completely superficial vapid life surrounded by trash people. What’s an alternative to keep her away from that life for four years and possibly surround her with kids that have a brain and real ambition? Get her into college. We always say on this site that we wish celebuspawn would go to college and live a more authentic life. Maybe Lori Loughlin felt the same way?? Just thinking on the why a bit…
But there are plenty of decent/good colleges her child could have attended with their grades where they’d be surrounded by smart people. And if grades had been the issue, they could have spent the money on tutoring. But they wanted their daughters to attend a university that was way above their capablities- her father is on the record saying University of Arizona wasn’t good enough for his daughters. That’s not a concerned parent caring about his child’s education.
No the son is complicit. He willingly sent in a sample of his handwriting so the forger could write the exam for him. I am sick and fed up of people complaining that these people who are old enough to vote are just children and not guilty.
Not only that, he had taken the test before, so he was aware of the actual rules and procedures he need to follow. He also had to participate in scamming the ACT in order to get special accommodations. That includes faking medial documents (or paying for them to be faked) and submitting fake history of disability and academic accommodations spanning years. There’s no way he wasn’t complicit in some way. He definitely wasn’t “truly in the dark.”
mtam, after reading several of your comments upthread, I’m inclined to agree with you. I posted earlier that I could give him the benefit of the doubt because the mom said on the wiretap she didn’t want the son to know. But I didn’t know he had taken the test before. You are correct. He was all in on it and now wants to plead ignorance once he’s been outed. SMH
@Renee
Yeah that’s exactly how I feel. I apologize if i came off harsh before in any way, i just can’t believe people are so ready to sympathize with him and believe his word he’s innocent. That statement was probably not even written by him (another thing he’s trying to pass off as his own work).
Yes, his mom wanted to try and shelter him from it, but she actually wasn’t trying that hard, the only thing we know she lied about was that he actually scored a 35. But everything else they did to pull it off–I just do not believe he wasn’t actively participating in cheating and getting special treatment.
Also what about the application, and the essay he would have needed to write for it. I wonder who they paid to do that for him.
Also he must know how unqualified he was for the school, specially now since he’s taken classes. Unless he’s one of those kids that have their parents hire someone to take classes for them.
There’s no way this kid didn’t know unless the paid proctor took the test the same day he did and switched results. Which does not seem like what happened.
Absolutely! Every kid knows whether or not he took the test, as well as the date it was taken. The only way a kid wouldn’t know is if the answers were switched by the corrupted proctor after the test was over.
For kids who didn’t live near Houston or West Hollywood, there had to have been some explanation about why it was necessary to travel to the exam site instead of taking it locally. Some parents may have given imaginative reasons but most kids with IQs above room temp must have smelled a rat so parents probably hinted that it would be to the kid’s advantage.
That’s actually exactly what happened in this kid’s case.
Not only that, but unless things have changed, who takes it at home – without someone supervising it? I used to proctor ACT tests and what you had to do to make sure the scores were valid was laid out.
@Swack
he had taken the ACT before, so he knew exactly was was required of him and the rules he needed to follow. He’s lying.
He didn’t know that he somehow submitted test scores for an exam he didn’t take, eh? Sure, buddy. This is the problem with a culture that conflates financial success with intellectual capability and work ethic – you get Einsteins like this guy thinking the rest of the population is stupid because we aren’t millionaires.
How would these kids be able to prove they didn’t know anything? The FBI can’t just take their word for it.
FBI has to prove guilt not the other way around. I think at this point it’s just the colleges that have to determine knowledge and how they want to handle the kids who were fraudulently admitted and they have wide discretion.
I think unless the kids themselves funnelled the money through the fake charity Rick Singer set up, then the FBI can’t charge them with anything. It’s up to the schools to do their homework and determine if they participates in the scam or not. Either way i think they should all be expelled since they scores they got on their SATs/ACTs were not theirs, they should have to take them again and apply to schools again (also because their applications were also filled with lies and essays not written by them). That’s the only fair thing.
Her son was scheduled to go to Huston to take the test but was too sick to travel. So the proctor took the test but a copy was sent to Buckingham so her son thought he was able to do it at home. The fake test was of course the one that was submitted. Now maybe he’s just used to his rich white bubble of a life and thought this was ok, but really? I think some of these kids are just so sheltered and used to privilege, they have no common sense. Their parents have failed them big time
Read the indictment, it’s an eye opener.
If this guy is dumb enough to think you’re allowed to take a test like that at home, then he really shouldn’t be in college. Wow.
Seriously, this sounds more like “intentional ignorance.” What kid didn’t attend school and not have to sit through a proctored state exam at some point? Why would you assume, unless you have an established medical history, that college entrance exams would be any different? Why send in an example of your handwriting if it’s already on the test? I have ADHD, and you would not believe the hoops I’d have to go through to get special treatment. Anybody who assumed otherwise is just showing their ass on the matter.
@Me
Exactly, specially since he had taken the test before, and scored much lower. He was aware of the actual procedure he needed to follow. I don’t believe he’s that innocent at all.
In the Midwest we do the ACT, when my son took it they were told to leave phones at home, nothing was allowed in testing room except a pencil. The kids knew why and what was going on. My kid knew his score , he actually took test again to try to get a couple more points ( to be eligible for a grant he wanted) Maybe Jack only saw the one score, but jeeze didn’t he think it was weird to travel for test, delay test, or have a practice test at home? Regardless of how she manipulated the situation, he had to know something was off, didn’t he have friends that he would take test with that were like what the hell man lol
My kids friends all talked about and compared scores, plans etc.
Also I would be interested in how Jack and these other kids are faring in school..these SATSsand ACTs are given for a reason.
Jane Buckingham also wrote a parenting book. Yeah.
How many bots are involved in the making of these young “influencers,” I wonder? Also, the FBI knows whether or not you were aware of and participated in the crime, Jack, as your attorney will explain to you when he or she tells you to stop making public statements.
“Instagram influencer” is a title people give themselves to validate their chosen uselessness. “Influencer” means she just appears on a stream and jelly-minded girls will want to be like her. Note that it does not say “The 15 year old is an aspiring interior decorator and uses Instagram as a platform,” for instance, which would be an actual career.
I completely object to the suggestion in this article that university or college is primarily for getting a job, and that a 15 year old with a lot of “followers on instagram” is set for life. Post-secondary education expands the mind and often the soul, creates well-rounded, informed minds, and opens so many worlds (of literature, of science, of other cultures, etc).
I’m amazed by Americans’ commodification of absolutely everything, even education. It saddens and worries me. Basically, what I hear is “if you are rich, you can stay a closed-minded dum-dum. If you want to educate yourself, you are a status-hungry elitist poseur.”
Sadly, the commodification of higher education is in no way limited to the USA.
I hear you, it’s depressing and scary. I’ll leave you with this gem from the Washington Post: “(former) Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker submitted a budget proposal that included language that would have changed the century-old mission of the University of Wisconsin system — known as the Wisconsin Idea and embedded in the state code — by removing words that commanded the university to “search for truth” and “improve the human condition” and replacing them with “meet the state’s workforce needs.”
OMG that is horrific. Good riddance Scott Walker he is in the pantheon of deplorables for sure.
Except there are plenty of people who get a post-secondary education, who don’t expand their minds and intellect in any capacity at all. I can name a dozen people off the top of my head who qualify as “smart” because they went to college and did well, but their understanding of life and reality and their capacity to connect with other people or feel empathy for those who are not like them is nil.
Meanwhile, some of the smartest people I know didn’t go to college. I agree with you that education shouldn’t become a commodity, but at the end of the day, an education is only as useful as what you make of it.
I’m willing to give the son the benefit of the doubt. He sounds like someone who is smart enough to pass college applications without mom’s help.
Oh no no. You should read the affidavit. He is definitely not even close to smart enough for that. Or even capable of crating that statement. Someone else clearly did that for him.
Harvard Westlake tuition is 20K per year. Jeez, how much of a leg up do you need? Public (non magnet) school kids are really eff-d aren’t they?
This rich kiddo went to Harvard Westlake, which costs $35K a year. The student teacher ratio for the rich kiddos there is 8 to 1.
Teacher’s salaries at Harvard Westlake start about $20K higher than starting salaries for teachers in LA’s public schools, where the average student teacher ratio for (for the working class kiddos in 7th – 12th grades) ranges from 1: 34 to 1: 42, according to the teachers union. (In fact student teacher ratio was one of the issues that drove the LATU members to strike earlier this year because…. I mean 42 teenagers in one classroom, how? how can anyone learn in that environment?!?)
The educational system in Los Angeles (and America generally) is already completely built to favor the wealthy (and in my experience, insufferable) kids at schools like Harvard Westlake. The idea that this viciously un-level playing field isn’t a scandal in and of itself is infuriating!!!
That said, if your kid can’t get into a good school after graduating from a place like Harvard Westlake… then the kiddos stupid, best to just stop wasting money on ’em!
ALSO (RE this scandal but not this post per se…) why is anyone bribing their way into USC??? I thought the whole point of USC was that you don’t have to pay bribes…
you just pay the tuition lol.
( JK! JK! I know some really smart folks who’ve studied there, but it’s definitely known as the University of Spoiled Children for a reason…)
Anyway, eat the rich and give their Tesla’s to public school teachers, thats what I say!!!
I swear, if I could star/up vote this I would.
“I was unknowingly involved in a large scheme.” That is not the same as saying he did not know he cheated. He just may not have known he was involved with a huge cheating scheme.
Exactly, sounds like carefully lawyer/publicist worded statement.
How do we know the daughter really has 1.4 million followers? Maybe they were bought too.
So a guy walks into a testing center who is clearly an adult. And the kids taking the exam don’t think something is fishy and report it to their parents? I must be missing something.
Hope this kid (who sounds sincere) cuts all ties with his mother. He sounds smart enough to make it on his own.
The affidavit that was released by the FBI spells it out. The test fraud scheme in a nutshell–the fraud mastermind, Rick Singer, essentially controlled two testing sites. One in Houston and one in LA. Meaning, he bribed a testing administrator at each site to allow fraudulent testing practices there.
Step 1: The kids get approval from ACT or SAT to get extra time to take the test. The end result is they can take the test apart from kids taking the test validly.
Step 2: The kids are routed by Rick Singer to take the test at the particular site in Houston or LA. He pays off his contact at the testing site to be there that day to open the site. The test taker, Mark Riddell, is flown in from Florida to Houston or LA. He either takes the test for the kid or the kid takes the test and Mark changes their answers afterward to guarantee a high score. Mark is paid off usually $10K per test and flies home to Florida. Sometimes Mark has two fraud kiddos there taking a test at once. But there is nothing in the affidavit to suggest that the fraud kiddos were in a room taking the test alongside kids who were taking it for realz.
Step 3: The fraudulent test is submitted to ACT or SAT.
In the case of Jack Buckingham, it is a little unusual because he never even went to the testing center because his mom says he has tonsillitis and can’t travel to Houston. So in that case Mark Riddell just took the test without the pretense of the kid being present.
@ Tourmaline Exactly! The whole scheme was based on cutting his clients away from the herd. Either take the test with a dishonest proctor or funnel the application through a hired coach.
@Other Renee
Lol! His mother did this ’cause he was actually not smart enough to do anything. He can barely write. To his mother it was basically a miracle if Singer was able to get him into a school. The kid is so dumb his mother paid 50k, committed a crime, and risked her freedom for him to get a higher education.
If he is not expelled from his school, he should be thanking his mother for the rest of his life. Because there’s no way he would have gone to a top school without her committing that fraud.
Also read the affidavit (or my comment below) I don’t believe he’s as innocent as he’s making himself out to be.
Do you really think the son even wrote this statement? With the stakes so high, would his parents let him write this? I think the family lawyer wrote it.
Totally agree.
Also in the affidavit, Jane Buckingham is recorded saying that she has some conflicts with her ex-husband. The ex-husband was not charged and there is nothing in the affidavit that suggests he knew of the scheme. I think he might be behind the son’s statement as well.
@betsyh
I agree. There’s no way he has the capability of writing such a coherent statement. Of course someone else wrote it for him. Read pages 20-22 of the indictment. Or my comment below. The kid is a moron.
Yep. This is from UK gossips Popbitch:
The FBI says that it has Jane on tape admitting that her son is thick as pigshit, explaining that getting him into a good school would be akin to curing cancer or brokering peace in the Middle East.
Exactly. I’m really surprised at the sympathy some people are expressing here. To me, this just reeks of the their sense of entitlement. They’ve never had consequences for their actions at any point in their life, so now they’re scrambling for an ignorance defense so they can play dumb and not get expelled. Any self-respecting school should get rid of them, regardless of what they knew. They can keep their credits, but they need to apply to a different school. Otherwise, it’s tacitly supporting the parent’s actions and demeaning the work of other students who got in fairly.
I really feel for this kid and I think he is telling the truth. It would be incredibly stupid for him to make a statement and lie and say he didn’t know when he did. Some of these kids probably did know and some probably didn’t. For the ones that were in the dark, I can’t imagine what they are going through. Feeling stupid they didn’t realize what was going on, realizing they didn’t get into college on their own merit and that they don’t deserve the spot they thought they earned. And worst of all, that their own parents betrayed them. I would be devastated if my parents had lied to me like that, realizing they thought I wouldn’t be able to get into college on my own. Can you imagine what this will do to the relationship between some of these kids and parents? Regardless of them being coddled. It will do irreparable damage.
For the ones that did know like Olivia Jade, I have no sympathy. She clearly doesn’t want to be in college for the academic portion of it which is the whole point of going to college. Of course there are parties and sports games and the like which is what makes college fun. But like any smart college student, you need to be able to balance your studies and your partying. Your parents aren’t paying for you to major in beer keg stands.
They were stupid enough to leave a paper trail and get caught, so don’t assume they can’t be stupid enough to lie after, either. Either way, they should be expelled, regardless of their knowledge on the matter. Poor kids suffer the cost of their parents’ crimes all the time. Rich kids shouldn’t be any different, and most of them were legally adults when all of this went down, anyway. The other young adults attending those colleges legally and on their own dime shouldn’t have to wear the tarnish of their classmate’s ethical failures when they graduate.
Jack was not “truly” in the dark.
He had to participate in scamming the ACT in order to get special accommodations, which they only give people with a proven disability and a medical history of it, and history of previous academic accommodation for w.e disability he lied about. (to say the least, the amount of documents he would have needed to submit in order to be approved is extensive).
He had taken the test before, so he knew the actual procedure he needed to follow (in an official testing centre in his city, with a proper proctor to supervise him), but apparently he didn’t question being able to take it in a hotel room with his parents as “proctors.”
He sent a sample of his signature and writing for them to copy. Even if his mom was able to feed him a lie for that as well, how could he not question randomly sending something like that to a stranger?
He and his parents had to lie in order to get permission for him to take the test in Houston in the first place.
And even if after all this he still believes he was capable of scoring higher the second time, how could he believe he was worthy of being admitted after taking the University classes?
There’s no way he wasn’t struggling through that. His own mom thinks he’s a idiot, and his handwriting is worse than a 4 year old’s. He must be somehow cheating his way through school now, mark my words.
Can I just ask, why the ACT? I graduated way back in 2010 but at that time the attitude (at my school at least) was the ACT was an easy back up for kids who scored poorly on the SAT, which was seen as much more legitimate.
I think you just answered your own question, haha.
A lot of kids now take the ACT instead of the SAT. I don’t know the format of the ACT now but I always considered it the exam kids took in the Midwest. My cousin who now attends Highpoint in North Carolina took it and she grew up on the East Coast. A lot of East Coasters and West Coasters are now taking the exam where the SAT was previously dominant. The SAT is a stupid exam and I didn’t do great on it and I took it twice (this was between the years of 2002-2006). Maybe had I taken the ACT I would have scored higher!
Didn’t he think it was weird that he had to fly to Texas to take a test? I mean, my school didn’t offer any sat tests, we had to go to the next district to take them with other students, but we didn’t have to fly to Texas. I’m also in SoCal, so flying 3-4 hours for a test, would have definitely brought up red flags. I mean, how dumb is he?
He had also taken the test before, so he knew that wasn’t normal.
I do believe Jack … and he sounds as though his education is paying off! Why not save all this $$ and just send their kids to beauty school, acting lessons, whatever … why do they need the status of their stump kids graduating from college??
Lol, you actually think he was the one who crafted that statement? Read the affidavit, you’ll give him way less benefit of the doubt after that.
This is a teenager with feelings. We have been out in the world enough that we should not be attacking and demeaning someone his age so vehemently. It is vicious
I mean it’s easy to say “He must have known something was up” when you know the full extent of the scheme. However, I’m not shocked that a teenager or anyone would fall for it given that the alternative to “Special accommodations were made by an organization” is “There is an elaborate scam taking place and my scores are going to be swapped out by a proctor hired by my parents.” Absent underlying evidence, there was no reason for him to believe that his parents were pulling a fast one.
As a parent of two university students I am appalled. We sent our oldest to extra tutoring seminars, plus a private tutor to get her grades up and prepare her for exams. In the end she knows that all of the extra work and tears (so many tears) paid off. Now, she’s doing really well in her classes and knows that she is capable.
I am afraid that that boy had to have known something was up, especially if his grades at school did not come close to mirroring his SAT score. It may be a good idea to look at these elite high schools as well. If the kids were just average students in their regular classes then that should have been an indicator that something fishy was going on.
So he basically said “lets be sure nobody after me ever gets away with this”. Everyone involved is garbage and I hate them all.
I don’t doubt for a second that these kids didn’t know what their parents were up to. Think about it for a moment. If they were actually smart enough to smell a scam when they came across one, they would be smart enough to study for their SATs and get into college on their own merits. It’s pretty clear that they couldn’t do the latter, so why in the world would anyone think they’d be smart enough to know something is illegal and wrong? I think some teenagers genuinely do get suckered in by their parents’ propaganda or lies, but the fact is that this was a poorly put together scam entirely. Even I could have sniffed it out, and I wasn’t that smart of a teenager either!
Gosh. Between these geniuses and the Trump administration, it really makes me wonder how and why some of us suffer from imposter syndrome in the first place. I literally had someone (a white man) tell me the other day that it should be easy for me because I’m brown and a woman. Harvard NEEDS to hit me up, because I swear I’d be a better student than any of these chumps ever were!!! (Call me Harvard!!! I’m right here!!!)
A couple comments to the posts above:
1. To those saying that you have to take the tests in your home city, that is not true. I took the SAT in California while living in New York. Nobody batted an eye or asked any questions, and I did not have to provide any justification. You can sign up for any test center anywhere. (And no, I did not cheat. My school was already on vacation for the June test date, and I usually stayed with extended family in California for a portion of the summer every year).
2. To everyone who says “he must have known,” that is easy to say as an adult. This kid was likely 17, obviously not too bright (no offense, but he needed strings pulled to get into USC), and it is entirely plausible that his parents (or mom) handled every step of the college application process (he may not have even been motivated to apply for college if it wasn’t for his parents taking care of every step, whether legitimate or illegimate). Whatever disability accommodation he received may well have been justified (again, he’s not too bright) under current standards (they are handing those out like candy since the College Board got sued for ADA violations and paid a large civil penalty a few years ago). As to taking the exam at home unproctored, I admit, it is a bit strange, but I can see a kid with no reason to distrust his mother (who has probably taken care of everything else in this not too bright kid’s life) to assume that everything was above board when she said she got an accommodation due to his sickness. In fact, his (actual) sickness would make the ruse all the less suspicious.
Without more, I am willing to give the kid the benefit of believing him (or better said, his statement, likely crafted by PR Firm and/or Dad).
I’m trying to imagine a world where a student says to a friend: Yeah, I took my ACT in a hotel or at home this weekend. My parents proctored it.
This is not possible. This kid’s friends would have said: WHAT? That is not a thing!
The only way he didn’t know is if his parents told him to keep it a secret. And any kid with even a hint of normal curiosity would have googled: Can students take the ACT / SAT at home?
@abc
re:1) You just mentioned your legitimate reason for taking your test outside your city–You usually live there over the summer, so it would have been convenient for you to do it there.
Jack had no legitimate reason for not taking his test in LA. In fact, if you read the part with the Caplan’s in the affidavit, Rick Singer explains his method (what he tells all the parents to do) of providing a good excuse to take the test outside the city, is to have them say they were there for things like a wedding or bar mitzvah. He straight up told them the family needed to lie, there must have been a reason for it (maybe your highschool don’t need a reason, but the test centres do?).
It is also worth noting the Buckinghams went through the trouble of having Jack play dumber than he is so he could get medically approved for a disability (In the Caplan’s section, Singer mentions having them try to score 100%, w.e. that means)–many of the kids who participated in this (the kids that got extended time like Jack did) had to be evaluated multiple times, and appeal the decisions if they didn’t get the disability status they wanted. I wonder how many times Jack had to do it.
They went through all that trouble to get Jack extra days to complete the test, yet in his mind he was going to fly to Houston to complete it in one day, and when he couldn’t do that and had to stay home, he also completed the dupe test in one day (with his mom or parents “supervising”), but Singer instructed he must put down it took him two days.
The fact that he had already gone through the process of getting tested for the ACT before, and had to follow the actual procedure for it, should have been obvious enough to anyone that had done it before (and watched their peers also doing it the official way) that it wasn’t the way to do it. Yet, he’s now pretending he thought nothing was out of the norm.
re:2) I will refer to @Wisca’s comment and mine above to explain why I believe “he must have known.” he’s definitely not as innocent as he pretends to be.
Hmm ….OK so some of the kids did not know, so what.
Do we really think if this was some poor non- celb offspring, black or latino/hispanic kid whose mum talked a friend into switching papers for him/her wouldn’t be thrown out on their ear at once or at the very least made to resit an entrance exam.
FYI, Lilia Buckingham dropped out of Harvard-Westlake last year.