Potomac School (McLean, Virginia)

The Potomac School is an independent private day school in McLean, Virginia, United States, located on one 90-acre (36 ha) campus, three miles (5 km) from Washington, D.C.

For the school in Potomac, see McLean School of Maryland.
The Potomac School
Aerial view of the school in 2018
Address
1301 Potomac School Road

McLean
,
Virginia
22101

United States
Coordinates38°56′10″N 77°9′20″W
Information
TypeIndependent school
MottoLabor Omnia Vincet
"Labor Conquers All"
Established1904
HeadmasterJohn Kowalik
Teaching staff165.4 (on a FTE basis) (2017–18)[1]
GradesK–12
GenderCoeducational
Enrollment*
Color(s)Blue, White, and Orange
NicknamePanthers
Websitewww.potomacschool.org
*not reported by school to NCES[1]

History

Founded in 1904 at Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C., the Potomac School was located for many years on California St., N.W.[2] Since 1951, it has been situated on a campus in McLean, Virginia.[2]

In 1949, Potomac School played a role in the famous trial of alleged Soviet spy Alger Hiss.  Priscilla Hiss was a teacher at the school in the late 1930s, when her husband worked in the State Department.[3]  At the trial, the government alleged that Priscilla Hiss used the family’s typewriter[4] to copy secret documents that Alger Hiss had stolen from the State Department.[5]  Prosecutors introduced expert testimony to show that an application for admission to Potomac School, typed by Alger Hiss for his stepson, was produced on the same typewriter as government documents that he allegedly provided to Whittaker Chambers.[6]  When the FBI visited Potomac to request access to correspondence relating to the Hiss family, the school’s headmistress initially refused, saying that even if Alger Hiss told her that he was a Soviet spy, she wouldn’t believe him.[7]

In 2011, a former Potomac student accused a former Intermediate School teacher and administrator of abusing her when she had been a student in the late 1960s. The teacher was arrested by Fairfax County police in November 2012.[8] He was convicted in October 2013 of molesting five girls, and was sentenced to 43 years in prison.[9] The Potomac School initiated an independent investigation into the matter, which was completed in June 2014. The investigation determined that evidence existed to suggest that the teacher had molested as many as 26 girls, and uncovered allegations that three other teachers had engaged in inappropriate sexual encounters with students. The report further determined that school officials were aware of the abuse and failed to notify the authorities, nor did they inform the teacher's future employers of his history after he was terminated in 1994 for performance failings. The school announced that it would turn its investigative results over to Fairfax County police and would institute comprehensive training in abuse prevention, universal background checks on all employees and volunteers, and standardized practices for handling abuse complaints.[10]

References
  1. "Search for Private Schools – School Detail for The Potomac School". nces.ed.gov. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  2. "100-plus Years". The Potomac School.
  3. Blair, William G. (October 15, 1984). "Priscilla Hiss, Who Defended Husband in Trials, Dies at 81". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  4. Tanenhaus, Sam. (1997). Whittaker Chambers : a biography (1st ed.). New York: Random House. pp. 392–93. ISBN 978-0-307-78926-6. OCLC 768494116.
  5. Chambers, Whittaker. (2014). Witness. New York: Regnery Publishing. ISBN 978-1-62157-376-0. OCLC 895432347.
  6. Tanenhaus, p. 323
  7. Dietrich, John (2013). The Morgenthau Plan : Soviet influence on American postwar policy (Revised ed.). New York. p. 31. ISBN 1-62894-020-4. OCLC 863305449.
  8. "Former teacher arrested on charges of sex abuse from 1960s". Associated Press. Mar 26, 2015. Retrieved Nov 29, 2020.
  9. Justin Jouvenal (October 18, 2013). "Former Potomac School sentenced to 43 years in decades-old molestations". The Washington Post.
  10. Justin Jouvenal (June 30, 2014). "Potomac School investigation uncovers more alleged abuse". The Washington Post.
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