College Insurrection Tag

The massive compensatory and punitive damage verdicts against Oberlin College and in favor of Gibson's Bakery and it's owners 91-year-old Allyn W. Gibson and his son David Gibson, have captured substantial attention. Almost none of that attention has been favorable to Oberlin College, with withering Op-Eds eviscerating Oberlin College and its social justice warfare gone mad.

Oberlin College has taken a public relations beating in the wake of the massive verdicts against it and its Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo in the Gibson's Bakery case. The verdicts totaled $44 million, but those will be reduced under Ohio's tort reform law -- how much they are reduced will be the subject of court litigation, but there will be a substantial reduction (perhaps more than half) in all likelihood. The stories are too numerous to list, but there has been widespread criticism of Oberlin College's conduct.

The massive compensatory and punitive damage jury verdicts in favor of Gibson's Bakery and its owners Allyn W. Gibson and David Gibson, against Oberlin College and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo, continue to reverberate. This case is a big shock to the higher educational system and already is giving rise to a rethinking of the role of administrators in participating in student activism. Yet think of the jury verdict as the end of the beginning. The most legally dangerous territory for the Gibsons is ahead. The facts of the case were so strong for the Gibsons that in some ways the easiest part is behind them. Now they need to protect what they have earned from numerous legal dangers. As discussed below, in addition to other legal challenges, the defense will save millions under Republican tort reform laws, how many millions will be a fight.