Tess McMullin ’18:
John Nagl, Headmaster of the Haverford School, has been placed on administrative leave as a result of his recent arrest on Monday, October 10th,,
Nagl was arrested by Haverford Police after an altercation with his son, Jack, a freshman at the Haverford School. According to police reports, the situation began when Nagl found his son in the posession of marijuana. He confiscated the drugs, as well as his son’s phone. Nagl later discovered that his son had repossessed his cell phone, and refused to turn it over. After Nagl took the phone out of his son’s hands and walked away, Jack re initiated the altercation with his father. In order to end the fight, Nagl told the police, he placed his son in a choke hold. The son called the police on the grounds of assault.
Nagl was arrested, arraigned, and released on $30,000 unsecured bail.
Haverford students have been told by administrators “not to talk [about the situation] until the evidence is out.” Multiple students, however, offered up their opinions, as long as they would be kept anonymous. When one junior found out about the situation, he experienced a mixture of “shock, fear, and shame.” The student continued on to say, “I fall in the majority in believing that if the evidence provided to us at this point is true (that Jack Nagl possessed illegal substances, was on a second warning, and initiated the altercation) that Dr. Nagl was justified in de-escalating the situation by subduing his son in the way he was trained: through what was described as a ‘tactical chokehold’.”
Nagl is a decorated Army veteran, serving in Operation Desert Storm in the Gulf War as well as the Iraq war. In the armed services, chokeholds are a strategic force performed in close combat situations. The method is also utilized in law enforcement, according to Wikipedia, “In law enforcement the goal is to force an uncooperative subject to submit without causing death or permanent injury.”
Many Haverford students have been showing allegiance to their headmaster, flooding social media with “#FreeNagl.” One student, who offered his name, but we choose to keep anonymoous to protect his indentity, said “As far as I know, almost everyone wants him back.”
Many Episcopal students sympathize with members of the Haverford community. Emma Sargent ‘18 says “I think in our culture we recognize the difference between stupid things done in anger and premeditated violent acts. He wasn’t deliberately trying to hurt his son, and it wasn’t like he regularly abuses family members. What the Haverford community has experienced in the past with Nagl’s leadership is probably more important in their overall assessment of him.” She continued, saying, “Also, for the parents, they might empathize with the anguish that would come with finding your son with drugs, and they might feel that he was not really himself under the circumstances.”
Recent alumni of the Haverford School are perhaps the most outspoken on the issue. Jonas Micolucci ‘16 changed his profile picture on Facebook to a photo of himself and the headmaster, sparking a debate in the comments, in which he replied, “The headmaster of the school I attended for 14 years of my life has been arrested for the assault of his son. The reputation and credibility of the institution which made me the man I am today are in dire jeopardy. My former home has been struck with yet another crisis, this one being one of the last that I would expect. The fact that I can’t do a darn thing makes me feel helpless. Therefore, all I can do is hope. Hope, that a decent resolution may be reached. If Nagl is guilty, then he deserves whatever he gets. But, with what little I know of the situation, I am choosing to believe that this would not have happened without some sort of reason.”