![]() ![]() When Schumacher disrupted the hazing session, the plebes were relieved, the bullies annoyed. A minor stabbing, perhaps, but telling of more extreme hazing that campus leaders seemed willing to tolerate, and sometimes even take part in. It revolved around lofty principles, yet often culminated in a “cap shield handshake,” wherein plebes point the prick of the badge toward their palm and accept a vigorous clasp. But he soon came to see the exam as an empty ritual. A stocky history nerd with dark brown hair, he spent hours memorizing school trivia and passed his cap shield exam in near-record time. ![]() Schumacher had arrived on campus in 2019, excited by the Forge’s time-honored traditions and drawn to its curricula on counterterrorism and cybersecurity. Valley Forge “brings out the best and the worst in people… It showed me who I didn’t want to be.” Those who pass are welcomed into the Corps of Cadets, which Schumacher now commanded, and rewarded with the cap shield medal, a brass badge depicting the mythical moment when General George Washington, standing on the Pennsylvania battleground for which the school was named, prayed for the survival of the fledgling American republic. The exam is the culmination of a boot camp of sorts for incoming college students. He’d stumbled upon an unsanctioned version of the “cap shield” exam, an induction rite wherein new students are quizzed on the Forge’s nearly 100-year history. Out on patrol that night, Schumacher told me, he felt on “the brink of darkness.” But as he navigated the school’s toxic environment in his new role, he’d been feeling increasingly helpless and depressed.Įntrusting students in leadership roles was all well and good, but a dearth of healthy adult oversight and accountability had contributed to a culture replete with assaults, verbal abuse, hazing, and sexual violence that had resulted in police visits, lawsuits, and a cold war pitting recalcitrant trustees and administrators against reform-minded parents, alumni, and cadets. A former Boy Scout who’d joined a junior ROTC program at age 11, he was proud of the promotion and ready to lead. ![]() Weeks earlier, the school’s top brass had elevated the 20-year-old college sophomore to the highest rank available to cadets-first captain. On a chilly evening in September 2020, Jordan Schumacher solemnly patrolled the grounds of Valley Forge Military Academy, near his wit’s end. Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters. ![]()
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