Kavanaugh Given Hero’s Welcome in Return to Georgetown Prep

Kavanaugh Given Hero’s Welcome in Return to Georgetown Prep

Newly sworn in Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh recently visited Georgetown Prep, where he was welcomed with open arms. It’s a feel-good story, which provides a stark contrast to the circus that played out in recent months.

Kate Kelly reports at the New York Times:

Back at Georgetown Prep, Kavanaugh Is Hailed as a Hero

During halftime at Georgetown Preparatory School’s homecoming football game on Saturday, a group of students swiped through photos on their phones as they waited in a long line for burgers and fries. One sandy-haired boy tapped his latest image: a selfie with Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, the newest member of the Supreme Court and an alumnus of Georgetown Prep, Class of 1983.

Justice Kavanaugh — whose years at this prestigious Catholic boys’ school were under a microscope during his Senate confirmation battle — was back on campus.

Following allegations that he had sexually assaulted a young woman during high school, Justice Kavanaugh’s drinking, rowdy behavior and treatment of women at Georgetown Prep nearly derailed his nomination.

Justice Kavanaugh vehemently denied ever assaulting anyone, and he was confirmed and sworn in as a Supreme Court justice earlier this month. At Georgetown Prep’s annual reunion weekend, he was hailed as a conquering hero.

On Friday night, he showed up at “stag night,” the first event of the reunion weekend. Some classmates at the on-campus party were pretty sure that he was dressed in the same dark suit and blue tie that he wore to his bruising Senate Judiciary Committee hearing a month earlier. Attendees said that he mingled with fellow alumni, asking about their family members, chatting about his new job and at one point posing for pictures with the school’s kitchen staff.

Of course, the Times had to get this in:

At one point during the football game, Justice Kavanaugh prepared to pose for a picture with former classmates. First, though, he instructed everyone to put down their beers, according to a person who witnessed the exchange. (Justice Kavanaugh didn’t appear to be drinking.)

Here are some photos:

Amazing meeting Justice Kavanaugh at @georgetownprep reunion! pic.twitter.com/gKqTWjs4SR

— TJ Villamil (@TJVillamil) October 27, 2018

Just hanging with my boy, Judge Kavanaugh, at Georgetown Prep. #kavanaugh #Legend @georgetownprep pic.twitter.com/QjGCb7kleN

— BƦłλ₦ ₣λŁλŦƙØ (@bfalatko) October 27, 2018

It’s hard to believe the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings ended just a month ago. Patrick Coyle, the director of marketing and communications at Georgetown Prep, writes at National Review about the lingering effects on the school:

Georgetown Prep after the Smear

On the afternoon of Thursday, September 13, as parents arrived at our school to pick up students, a journalist from a major network camouflaged herself among them, avoiding identification at our front gate. She was subsequently found snooping around the halls of our main building and was escorted off campus. She later apologized.

But others soon followed. One reporter from a national newspaper deceived his way into our library so that he could rummage through old yearbooks. Some of our alumni had news crews staked out in front of their houses. Reporters were even harassing their elderly parents, tracking down home addresses and banging on doors, demanding interviews.

Journalists phoned us by the dozens, mostly demanding to know how long we had presided over a circus of drug and alcohol abuse, misogyny, and criminality. At least these reporters gave us the courtesy of a call. Many other national media outlets simply ran archly critical stories without bothering to contact us at all.

This was all necessary for American democracy, some of them explained, since one of our graduates had become a Supreme Court nominee…

If there has been any self-reflection from the press in the aftermath of their barrage, it has been hard to find. We’ve seen no contrition for the harms caused to many wholly innocent people, no apparent concern for how the haranguing may have affected our community or the young people in our care.

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