


The resolution was emailed to all students, the College’s President, Dean Raimondo, who served as the Student Senate’s advisor and posted in a display case in the College’s Student Center. The College’s Student Senate passed a Senate Resolution calling on students to boycott the bakery and demanding that the College condemn its history of racial profiling and discriminatory treatment of students and residents of color. Raimondo and Reyes also attempted to block the reporter and others from taking pictures of the protesters.Ī Black employee of Gibson’s reported that Dean Raimondo appeared to be “ orchestrating” some of the protests. The College claimed that Dean Raimondo was there to “ensure that students’ freedom of speech was protected and that the student demonstrations were safe and lawful.”Īt the protest a flyer was circulated labelling the bakery a “racist establishment” with “a long account of racial profiling and discrimination.” The College made copies of the flyer and both Raimondo and Reyes were seen passing them out to students to distribute, with the Dean handing a flyer directly to a local newspaper reporter. Several college administrators attended the protest, notably the Dean of Students, Meredith Raimondo, and the Assistant Director of Student Outreach and Success, Julio Reyes. The male student was arrested and charged with robbery, while two Black female students who accompanied him were charged with assault.Īlthough nine months later the students pleaded guilty to attempted theft and aggravated trespass and acknowledged that the Bakery’s actions were not racially motivated, the day following the incident hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside of the bakery claiming the store’s clerk had engaged in racial profiling and assaulted the Black students. When police arrived, they observed the clerk on the ground being punched and kicked by several individuals. An altercation ensued after the clerk tried to detain the student and police were called.

On November 9, 2016, a White store clerk confronted a Black male Oberlin student who attempted to use a fake ID and steal wine. At the time of the incident, the bakery had been in operation for over 130 years and had a long-standing business relationship with the College. The lawsuit arose out of an incident at Gibson’s Bakery, a family-run bakery and convenience store located in Oberlin, Ohio. Important lessons can be learned from Oberlin’s missteps, lessons that every college administrator should heed lest they too want to be on the wrong end of a similar verdict. Unfortunately, this reporting has often emphasized the alleged racial aspects of the case, at the expense of focusing on Oberlin’s conduct and the culpability of its administration.
#Hand of fate 2 brimstone free
There has been much reporting about the incident that sparked the lawsuit against Oberlin and the potential negative impact of the court’s decision on the rights of students to engage in free speech and protest. On March 31, 2022, an Ohio Appeals Court upheld a lower court verdict against Oberlin College awarding $31.2 million to a local bakery on the grounds that, among other things, the College and its Dean of Students defamed the business.
