That’s great. If it’s a first year, give it time…my S went there a lot his first semester before he was ‘informed’.
He won’t pay attention to the noise.
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I have thought from day 1 that they will have to sell the store.
The bottom line is that a business like that NEEDS the college student business. And that relationship has been irreparably damaged. 20 years from now there will STILL be upperclass students telling the first years to avoid them. The business is much more valuable in the hands of anyone other than the Gibson family, and with a new name.
I don’t know that there is a legal basis for this, but from an equitable point of view I have always thought that was some of the damages that the Gibsons needed compensated for. There is a 5th generation business that has been probably damaged to the point it makes no sense for it to continue.
That is more than just a business, it is 5 generations of living in the town and operating a business that is a bit of a social hub for the town. I’m pretty liberal, and I’m also pretty far down the continuum for protecting free speech and the right to protest. But Oberlin behaved unconscionably here. Everyone involved should be fired, including any of the trustees who weren’t trying to pressure their fellow trustees and the administrators to settle.
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Oberlin students and families received an email today that Oberlin has ‘initiated payment’ of the $36M owed to Gibson’s. Also said the Board of Trustees has decided to not pursue the matter further.
Finally.
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Better later than never. Take your lumps and move on. The current administration has enough self inflicted problems of their own, they don’t need to keep getting beat up because of their predecessors’ missteps.
It is a great school. They just need to get out of their own way. Hopefully they solve the healthcare issue quickly, so they can finally get the focus on the positives, not the dumb mistakes.
The saddest part of all of this is that Oberlin’s behavior regarding this incident is a true reflection of what Oberlin has become. Hyper left wing, antisemitic, reverse racist. Alumni are ashamed of Oberlin, have stopped donating, and won’t send their children there. When my musical, high academic stats kid was beginning their college search about three or four years ago, I told them Oberlin was off the table.
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I’m glad to see that Oberlin satisfied the judgment. I agree with the comments above from @dadof4kids . This case cried out for a settlement before it ever got to trial. The Gibsons wanted some sort of statement that they weren’t racist. It seems like it was the flyer that claimed “a long account of racial profiling and discrimination” that was the most objectionable to the Gibsons. There should’ve been a way to work out a mutually agreeable statement that fell short of a complete exoneration of the Gibsons but gave them most of what they wanted. Something that for example recognized that Gibsons was a long standing community asset and partner with the college, that it had a right to protect itself from shoplifting as long as it was done in a non-discriminatory manner, that all parties acknowledge that systemic racism is a real and pervasive problem and that they will work cooperatively to help reduce or eliminate discrimination and profiling. I’m not saying my version is perfect or even that good, but it always boggled my mind that nothing like it could’ve been worked out and my impression was that it was because the Oberlin admin was unwilling to do anything that even hinted at the possibility that what the Gibsons did was justified.
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I know that a link was posted above, but the text of the family member’s side of the story, which is surely the truth, since the students were arrested and pleaded guilty to shoplifting, might make one think a bit less of Oberlin. The students should also have been convicted of attempting to buy alcohol with a fake ID while underaged, and most seriously, of assault - when the police arrived the owner’s son was down in the street, with the three students kicking the s–t out of him.
As it wound up, Jonathan Aladin, Endia Lawrence, and Cecilia Whettstone all were convicted of shoplifting - must have made a plea bargain agreement to get out of the assault charges.
And then Oberlin tried to destroy the Gibsons and their livelihood for “racism” because the three students were black. For this, Gibsons was supposed to work out a mutually agreeable statement that fell short of a complete exoneration? Really?
The fact that the student body is STILL, six years later, spreading the lie that the Gibsons did ANYTHING wrong, that they are racist, and must be boycotted, only confirms my previous statement, that this entire incident is a true reflection of the poisonous atmosphere currently at Oberlin.
After the students’ lawyers had bargained down the charges to misdemeanor attempted theft, aggravated trespassing, and underage purchase of alcohol, and the students had pleaded guilty, Antoinette Myers, the director of Oberlin’s multicultural resource center and interim assistant dean of students, texted her supervisor, Dean Raimondo: “After a year, I hope we rain fire and brimstone on that store.” (The students would have been eligible to have their records expunged after a year of probation with no further criminal incidents.)
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Have you spoken to any Oberlin alum, current parents, or students? Visited?
Note (just so everyone knows where I stand if they haven’t read my posts in this thread): I do not support Raimondo, or how Oberlin (senior admin/trustees) handled this lawsuit.
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Yes. A close relative and many of relative’s friends are Oberlin alumni, who used to support Oberlin with alumni donations, but no longer do so, because of the virulently antisemitic atmosphere on campus, as reported in the reputable national press over the past nearly two decades.
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I understand that, but this thread is about Gibsons. I assure you most parents, at least based on the FB page which is extremely active, support Oberlin re: Gibsons. Again, I’m not in that group.
Believe me, I’m very sympathetic to the Gibsons in this. And I’m guessing that the blame for the failure to settle rests primarily with Oberlin. But it’s also true that neither Grandpa Gibson nor David Gibson lived to see the appeal won and the judgment paid. I’m just saying that Oberlin failed to take several off ramps along the way. Settlements involve compromise and it’s sad to see that didn’t happen here.
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