This entire situation was grossly mismanaged by the College. Their Counselor to Students encouraged the protest, provided them with hot chocolate, gave them a s

This entire situation was grossly mismanaged by the College. Their Counselor to Students encouraged the protest, provided them with hot chocolate, gave them a safe space to rest and recover in. That official was never disciplined for his role in this, and a couple of years later moved on to another role elsewhere in the country. In my non-legal opinion, the College should have acknowledged some culpability for encouraging a riot, and should have disciplined the three students involved in the shoplifting, fake I.D., and assault of the shopkeeper. Then they should have quietly settled with the shop for a couple hundred thousand plus legal fees and this whole thing would have been all but forgotten by now. In fact all the students who were around in 2016 would have long since graduated. Instead, Oberlin has a public relations disaster on its hands. Or, at a minimum, some much unwanted attention and a very painful penalty that they can ill afford. They just cut around 100 spots from their core Conservatory program, and they also controversially fired about 100 unionized custodial and food staff. My spouse is an Obie, and my teenager is looking at colleges. Having read this story, she's a lot less interested now in Oberlin, though a classmate of hers is going there this fall. Too bad.