Alternate title- Karma BITES!
Oberlin College has been fined $11 million in the Gibson Bakery racial profiling case!
An Ohio jury on Friday slapped Oberlin College with an $11.2 million damages penalty for siding with three black students who had claimed they were victims of racial profiling after they were caught shoplifting in 2016, a report said.An Ohio jury on Friday slapped Oberlin College with an $11.2 million damages penalty for siding with three black students who had claimed they were victims of racial profiling after they were caught shoplifting in 2016, a report said.
NY Post article, HERE.
The blog Legal Insurrection has been following this one from basically day 1, and has some excellent reporting, HERE. They also have links to the previous reporting at the bottom of the page. It’s a bit of a time sink, but well worth the read, if for nothing else than the absolute egotism of the university and it’s leaders.
This is one of those cases where the University ‘thought’ they were the big dog, and could do what they wanted…
The jury thought differently, and next week is the punitive damages portion of the sentencing, which could triple the damages. I hope to hell they DO triple the damages. Trying to ruin a 135 year old, 5 generation family business because your students were idiots and shoplifted in the wrong place at the wrong time and got caught is NO excuse.
That the University pandered to the POS (Perpetually Offended Snowflakes) on campus and apparently were actually supported by the dean of students, including the dean handing out flyers AT the bakery, then tried to say it was all ‘First Amendment”, and we didn’t do nuffin…
Granted Oberlin will appeal, and try to drag this out until the family is broke and out of business, but I truly hope this is a wakeup call for those in power that they CAN be held accountable for their actions!
And it’s about damn time!
You are completely correct, and it is long past the time for personal accountability.
I’ve been following the Oberlin vs. Gibson’s Bakery Case.
Pretty good wrap up here.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/06/verdict-jury-awards-gibsons-bakery-11-million-against-oberlin-college/
And it looks like the insurer for the college isn’t going to pay.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/06/exclusive-oberlin-college-insurer-likely-to-reject-coverage-for-gibson-bakery-11-million-verdict/
Does this mean that the college administrators will be held personally liable?
As you said about the next steps.
This is far from over, and I’m thinking that the left isn’t going to learn anything.
The left seems to have built a mental wall between their actions, and the consequences of their actions.
And instead of learning anything from the consequences, they just keep on strengthening the wall.
John – The point of the Left’s actions is to gain power and keep control. Minor setbacks don’t matter to the overall plan. The point has been made that they will intimidate any nonconformists.
“Nice business you got there. Be a shame if something bad happened to it.”
McChuck – Totally correct.
“personally liable” – THAT is the main key to stopping such obnoxious behavior. Far too many lefties ‘think’ (or is it feelz?) that they will never have that accountability applied to them.
Prime example is the ‘punishment’ the moslem MN ‘representative’ just got for SIX violations involving misuse of campaign funds – $500 plus restitution to her committee. Any bets not one thin dime came out of her pocket.
Closer to home – when is bobby frank (beto) going to held accountable to his FEC violations?
They keep doing it because they are essentially getting off scott free.
I awoke yesterday to the good news about Gibson’s bakery.
Praying for their continued success.
Oddly enough, if Oberlin goes down so hard they close, Gibson’s as a bakery may suffer as it supplied a large customer base.
The townies have continued to support Gibsons’ Bakery. The original actions and the subsequent boycott of GB has driven a wedge between the town and gown, deeper than ever.
Gibson’s has been living off of the town since the event and boycott.
It would be nice if this was a healing moment, but, unfortunately, with so many leftists, this will permanently stigmatize the bakery in the eyes of anyone from the college.
Most likely they’ll take the money and run. Maybe not right away, but I anticipate in a few years they’ll close.
Sad. Sad that a fake racist incident (like so many in comparison to real racist incidents) has basically killed a business and may kill the school.
The truly unfortunate thing about this whole mess is the administrators and educators will walk away and get new jobs and continue the stupid, spreading the leftist infection.
Prediction: The (P)regressives will continue to attack Gibson in any way possible. An example exists here in Colorado with a cake maker, Jack Phillips.
Supreme Court ruling? We don’t care about any stinking court ruling.
https://www.cpr.org/news/story/masterpiece-baker-jack-phillips-is-up-against-yet-another-legal-complaint
I’m insufficiently versed in the law to even guess at the final outcome, but I’ll be happy with the victories I can get.
The brass, the staff, and the POS at Oberlin have had this coming for a long time. I hope punitive damages exceed the plantiff’s hopes and dreams. At the end of the bloody day the plaintiff still has to collect, and that will be more than a little problematical. The only advantage they have is that, unlike an ex-spouse, Oberlin isn’t packing up in the middle of the night and moving to Phuket, Thailand for an extended vacation.
What should really happen is the administration in its entirety, along with any SJWs who want to join them as a sort of support gesture, should be incarcerated until such time as all debts are settled.
Contingency?
Those are big numbers. I can’t imagine one of Michael Avenatti’s brethren wouldn’t salivate to take this case to infinity for Gibson’s.
John/McC- Agreed!
Ed- I’m sure this is a drop in the bucket to Oberlin. They can pay this out of endowment and probably not even feel it.
WSF- Sadly true… sigh
MJ- Agreed!
Beans- Good point, and yes VERY sad.
GB- Oh I’m sure they will!
But wait, there’s more!
https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/06/oberlin-college-mass-email-criticizing-jurors-could-influence-punitive-damages-hearing-in-gibsons-bakery-case/
“three students who…were caught shoplifting” and beating up the clerk who tried to stop them. Also it was several professors who organized and directed the ‘student’ protest- that shocked me.
The second most significant fact, after the jury finding for the bakery, is that the insurer is not likely to pay, stating that the coverage isn’t valid for “intentional torts.” That’s a sho’nuff thing.
That’s a game-changer, because it means that the college itself will have to pick up the tab. And while it is true that Oberlin has a huge endowment, reported to have a value of $887.4 million last year, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they can cover the judgement without the shedding of a LOT of blood.
First, donors FREQUENTLY give with strings attached to the money, with statements that the gift is to be invested, and the proceeds going to a specific purpose, such as to fund scholarships for needy left-handed Lithuanians, or to fund renovation to the physical plant, or whatever. So, those funds CAN’T be used to cover any other expenses. A otherwise reputable and responsible Christian mission, Gospel for Asia, just paid for that lesson, to the tune of $26,000,000, with another $11,000,000 to go, after settling a case alleging that donations weren’t going where they were supposed to go. This really wasn’t a scandal, but loose accounting, as all of the money went to a mission field, but that money donated to dig a well might actually have gone to buying a water buffalo, etc. And you can’t do that.
Secondly, board members are going to be livid. Lots of them are personally responsible for fund-raising, and some element is very likely to want to see bleeding corpses as a result of the stupid action by administrators. Beside the immediate impact of the payout, this is NOT going to benefit fund-raising for the next few years.
Third, just because your portfolio is assessed at $887 million, that doesn’t mean you can raise that amount of cash by selling it off. Some of those assets might not be disposable; others might only disposable at a substantial discount. And markets matter.
Perhaps related: Stanford University, under pressure from student groups, decided to divest from coal stocks in 2014. Before that decision was implemented, their endowment rose 14.8 in one year. In the year of the divestment, it only rose 3.6%.
I worked in colleges and universities for seven years. Based on my experience, heads are gonna roll over this. And top admin jobs in prestige universities are rare as hen’s teeth. The leading admin in this little bit were backed while the fire was raging, but in a year, they’ll be working for an NGO or some non-profit; MAYBE, just maybe, thye’ll be teaching, because “my long-term desire has always been to return to the classroom.” (Yeah, sure.)
John- WOW! That…is beyond stupid!
Two- Yep, kinda stunning isn’t it!
Pat- Good points! Missou’s/Evergreen’s BS with the POS should be warning to ALL the campuses.
That’s “Mizzou” with z’s. It was sane when I was there, LO, those many years ago. Parents met there, siblings went there, too.
Karma done run over their dogma, and smashed it flat.
It’s a shame the institution that is teaching our future leaders thinks these actions are just free speech, it looks to this uninformed red neck at some time the administration would have stepped back and said this didn’t happen on our campus so we have no dog in this fight, no they treated the students like a mother hen treats her chicks and now they are all chicken strips. Sorry that just makes me smile. Russell