Claremont Hate Crime Called Hoax

LA Times ^ | March 17. 2994 | Joy Buchanan, Kristina Sauerwein and Stuart Silverstein

[BurbankKarl]

A week after a reported campus hate crime drew national attention, sparked protests and shut down the prestigious Claremont Colleges, police on Wednesday called the incident a hoax staged by a professor who slashed tires, shattered windows and spray-painted racist graffiti on her own car.

Claremont McKenna College psychology professor Kerri Dunn, who had told police that her car was vandalized as she spoke at a March 9 forum on racism, was identified by two eyewitnesses as the person who damaged the auto, authorities said Wednesday.

She was not arrested, but Claremont Police Lt. Stan Van Horn said the case would be sent to the Los Angeles County district attorney for review and that the likely charge would be filing a false police report, a misdemeanor. The FBI said she might face more serious felony charges of lying to federal investigators.

Campus leaders last week had condemned the vandalism as a hate crime, shut down the Claremont consortium of colleges for a day of anti-hate rallies and called in FBI investigators. The police contention that Dunn staged the incident triggered a wave of anger against her Wednesday and fears that students would become cynical about racism.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

...psychology professor Kerri Dunn...

UC Berkeley is probably recruiting professor Dumm.

[Green Knight]

Ping

[LS]

Unbelievable. Well, not really, but as a professor, I can tell you that if I pulled something like that at my school, I'd be toast.

Side story: 25 years ago I had a full ride to Claremont, which had a rep as being very "conservative," especially with Harry Jaffa in Poly Sci. I visited the campus first, and met with him, and several of the guys who were to be my profs. At the end of the day, they had so turned me off that I gave them their money back and went to UCSB.

[Atlas Sneezed]

From the Georgia O'Keefe painting in the foyer (is has become an icon of female sexuality) I'd guess that she is a gal's gal.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Did any of these articles mention her police record? Here's a local 1:

http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203~21481~2024697,00.html

[BookmanTheJanitor]

My impression of the Claremont McKenna students was that they tended more towards the conservative side and were mostly studying in the areas of business, law and government.

As a CMC alumni and someone still connected to CMC, I can tell you that you are correct. The campus is getting more liberal, but it's still the most conservative of the 5 undergraduate colleges.

The phone was buzzing last night from a number of friends/large donors talking about holding out until she is fired. Also, an alumni e-mail campaign has already started to get this professor out. There are a number of alumni originally not happy with President Gann....yesterday's weak response did not help.