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Progressive Oberlin College lost a huge case in appeals court last week that forced the school to pay $31 million to a bakery, which it falsely accused of carrying out racist actions in a 2016 incident. Gibson's Bakery – a 135-year-old family business near the campus of Oberlin College – was the site of an unfortunate incident. The owner's son allegedly confronted three black Oberlin students who attempted to shoplift bottles of wine. According to the police report, one of the suspects assaulted a store employee when confronted about the stolen wine. The three students pleaded guilty to attempted theft...

A record $31 million award to a mom and pop bakery that accused a liberal Ohio college of ruining its business with false accusations of racism has been upheld by a state appeals court. Gibson's Bakery, a 135-year-old family business near the campus of Oberlin College, was initially awarded more than $40 million in punitive and compensatory damages in the aftermath of a 2016 incident in which the owner's son confronted three black Oberlin students who were stealing wine from the store. Although the suspects were arrested and later admitted they were shoplifting, the episode touched off school-sanctioned protests and...

The Ohio 9th District Court of Appeals has just issued a decision in the Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College case. For those of you new to the case, Gibson’s Bakery was a 5th generation family business in Oberlin, Ohio, near the Oberlin College campus. It served baked goods to the public and also to the student dining service, as well as operating a general convenience store. As with many other small businesses, student shoplifting was epidemic, as we covered, Student journalist: Shoplifting at Gibson’s Bakery was part of Oberlin College’s “Culture of Theft” A store clerk, a member of the...

The student newspaper at an Ohio college known for its left-leaning politics published a column addressing the number of white students attending campus concerts. “When there are so few resources for non-white students on campus, it can be upsetting when concerts headlined by artists of color are dominated by white students,” wrote Kayla Kim, a first-year student at Oberlin College.... In the Dec. 10 column titled “Concerts Need to Be Better for Students of Color,” Kim claimed that whites, who comprise the majority of the student population, take over events by displacing black students in the front rows.... ...Kim also...

A student at Oberlin College in Ohio described being "scared" and "angry" after the school announced a work crew would be installing radiators in a "safe space" dormitory for women and trans students, explaining the crew would likely be "cisgender men." "I was angry, scared, and confused. Why didn’t the College complete the installation over the summer, when the building was empty? Why couldn’t they tell us precisely when the workers would be there? Why were they only notifying us the day before the installation was due to begin?" Oberlin student Peter Fray-Witzer wrote in an op-ed published in the...

A student at Oberlin College in Ohio described being "scared" and "angry" after the school announced a work crew would be installing radiators in a "safe space" dormitory for women and trans students, explaining the crew would likely be "cisgender men." "I was angry, scared, and confused. Why didn’t the College complete the installation over the summer, when the building was empty? Why couldn’t they tell us precisely when the workers would be there? Why were they only notifying us the day before the installation was due to begin?" Oberlin student Peter Fray-Witzer wrote in an op-ed published in the...

For the first time in the College’s history, students are studying during a summer semester, making this a momentous first as we celebrate Pride Month on campus. We are, however, four days into June, and we’ve heard little talk from student organizations, faculty, or the College about events to mark the occasion. In the town of Oberlin, there is a similar void of broadly-advertised Pride programming. While students are sure to observe the occasion on their own, it seems like a waste that this unique confluence of events will happen without official recognition. Oberlin can definitely be a great place...

Judge ruled that “risk of injury to persons” and “individual privacy rights and interests” prevailed over what the Gibsons alleged was collusion between the college and Cleveland media to “dox” Allyn D. Gibson...As part of that campaign seeking to impugn the Gibsons post-trial, Oberlin College sought to unseal the confidential Facebook records of Allyn D. Gibson, the store clerk whose stop of a black Oberlin College student for shoplifting sparked the protests, accusations of racial profiling, business cut-off, and eventually, lawsuit and jury trial. The student, along with two other students, later pleaded guilty to offenses related to the shoplifting.

President Carmen Twillie Ambar’s Feb. 18 announcement that the College is formally considering outsourcing 108 dining and custodial jobs currently held by United Automobile Worker union members incited a campus-wide conversation and student-led protests and demonstrations. As activism in support of UAW continues, the College is in the midst of considering how best to approach its relationship with student activists. One approach taken by the Division of Student Life is to assemble a Rapid Response Team, meant to engage with student activism on campus in a constructive way. The team intends to inform students about different demonstration policies — such...

President Carmen Twillie Ambar, Oberlin College’s first Black president and just the second female president, shared with us all an impressively argued, 900-word announcement titled “Dining and Custodial Negotiations,” which reported that the College has proposed to, very shortly, cut every single one of its custodians and dining hall workers without warning, unceremoniously — a Trump-like “Get out of here, you’re all fired!” President Ambar’s defense of her actions is quite solidly based upon One Oberlin, which is the name of the final report produced by the Academic and Administrative Program Review. The president offers an unassailable argument for the...

...The financial impact of the Gibson’s Bakery loss is not yet clear. It will be interesting to see if the negative publicity impacts the incoming class, and how much in grant money needs to be spent to maintain quality and quantity. But clearly Oberlin College has suffered a public relations body blow from the case. The seriousness of the situation is further revealed in a campus announcement that Oberlin College will seek to replace UAW union workers in the dining hall and custodial services with outsourced contractors...

Inside Gibson’s, the atmosphere is quiet and subdued. It’s clear that this little business and its owners have endured a great deal in the past three years, beginning with student protests in front of the store in November 2016. The protesters denounced the Gibson family as racist and claimed the store had a long history of racial profiling (none of which is true). Evidence introduced at trial established that the college facilitated these protests and that at least one senior college official actively participated in them. Following the protests, the college suspended its 100-year business relationship with Gibson’s Bakery.

I appeared tonight on Tucker Carlson Tonight to provide an update on the Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College case. It was my first time doing an on-set interview, and it was fun. TUCKER: In late 2016, three students at Oberlin college, maybe the most liberal college in the country, tried to rob a small family business near the school called Gibson’s Bakery. Tried to steal a bottle of booze among other things. When they were caught, one of them assaulted the son of the bakery’s owner, physically. One response to that, Oberlin college amazingly attack the bakery as racist and...

There have been many strange motions and actions in the Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College case. A post-trial motion by Oberlin College to unseal Facebook records may be one of the more strange developments, and offers a window into the bitter feelings of college officials. Allyn D. Gibson (Allyn D.) is the grandson of plaintiff Allyn W. Gibson (“Allyn W.”) and the son of plaintiff David Gibson. Allyn D., who was not a party in the lawsuit, was the store clerk on duty who caught an Oberlin College student shoplifting. The scuffle that ensued, involving two additional Oberlin College students,...

Property records obtained through the Lorain County Auditor’s office reveal that the Gibson family, who recently won a $25 million judgement in the lawsuit they filed against Oberlin College and Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo, own property within Oberlin city limits worth approximately $1.7 million, a sum figure not previously discussed in the media. The value assessments are calculated by the auditor’s office using tax information and in-person assessments. The figure does not include properties owned outside of Oberlin or controlled through Off Street Parking, Inc. — a corporation in which David Gibson owns a majority stake....

Almost two years ago, in 2017, I wrote you pleading for Oberlin College to seek an out-of-court settlement with the Gibson family (“Gibson’s Links Black People to Anti-Semitism,” The Oberlin Review, Dec. 1, 2017). But nothing seemed to take place until it was announced in April that efforts had failed and that the case was going to trial this past May. It did, and the jury ruled in favor of the Gibson family. Last week, I wrote again hoping that Oberlin College would appeal the local jury’s decision to award millions of dollars to the Gibson family (“College Should Respect...

Big dollar signs make for memorable headlines. In June, when an Ohio jury ordered Oberlin College to pay $33 million in damages to a small bakery that had been the target of a protest orchestrated by employees of the college, the figure shocked many observers. Could Oberlin officials have really been so dastardly as to merit such a mammoth legal thumping? Apparently so. In a lengthy essay in Commentary magazine, former Oberlin professor Abraham Socher gave a thorough account of the events that led up to the $33 million verdict. The story, in case you don’t already know it, goes...

If you want to save your college tens of millions of dollars in litigation, settle quickly. That’s the lesson colleges are likely taking from Oberlin College’s decision to take a chance on a jury in the defamation lawsuit by Gibson’s Bakery. A judge denied the liberal arts school’s motion for a new trial this week following a $25 million jury award (plus $6.5 million in attorneys fees and costs) against Oberlin. The documents filed by the parties this week suggest Oberlin could have saved itself $24 million by not dragging out the case. The Chronicle-Telegram reports that Lorain County Common...

In the Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College case, the judgment for the plaintiffs amounted to almost $32 million in damages and defendants were required to post a $36 million bond to secure the judgment pending appeal. Before appealing, Oberlin College filed two post-trial motions, a Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding The Verdict (pdf.) and Motion for a New Trial (pdf.), as explained in our post, Oberlin College Seeks New Trial in Gibson’s Bakery Case. Gibson’s Bakery responded with an Opposition to the Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding The Verdict (pdf.), and Opposition to the Motion for a New Trial (pdf.), as explained...

“Defendants’ challenge to the libel verdicts consists mostly of regurgitated arguments that this Court already decided during summary judgment briefing and that can be dismissed out of hand.” Oberlin College will appeal, of course, but before has filed two post-trial motions, a Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding The Verdict (pdf.) and Motion for a New Trial (pdf.). As explained in our post, Oberlin College Seeks New Trial in Gibson’s Bakery Case, most of those motions were uninteresting rehashing of arguments previously litigated and rejected by the trial Judge John Miraldi. The only interesting part of the motions was the issue of...