By Makenzie MacDonald
In early March news broke out against many celebrity parents that were charged of bribing colleges to allow admission into their schools and for some, sports teams as well.
Lori Loughlin, also known as Aunt Becky from Full House, was one of these alleged criminals. Exposing that her and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, allegedly paid $500,000 in order to claim their daughter Olivia Jade was apart of the crew team at University of Southern California. However, Olivia Jade had zero experience with the sport beforehand.
Mentioned in a People’s article that received information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts, 50 people have been found guilty of the nationwide scheme, including actress Felicity Huffman, from Desperate Housewives. Huffman was found paying $15,000 for someone to take an entrance exam for her eldest daughter.
Negativity has surrounded the scheme, Olivia Jade previously posted on her YouTube page when she was “applying” about how she never really enjoyed school and was just excited to attend school in order to experience the partying lifestyle and sporting events. Currently, Olivia Jade’s contract with Sephora has been diminished, as well Lori Loughlin’s acting contracts, Hallmark released she would not be returning to their channel, especially in When Calls the Heart and the Netflix series Fuller House.
However, after Loughlin and Giannulli were arrested they each posted $1 million bond, and are expecting to return to federal court in early April, according to the Washington Post.
Then news broke of how the entire scandal unfolded, and who was behind exposing these celebrities’ crimes, Morrie Tobin, a broker caught in an act of fraudulent crimes back in April of 2018. Tobin apparently struck a deal with his federal prosecutors to reveal some crucial information to deter authorities of his actions, in hopes to lighten his sentence.
Tobin’s reveal left those accused of the crime only to plead guilty, however, the ones who plead guilty were not Lori Loughlin, but others who were caught feeding money to Yale University’s admissions consultant William Singer, and women’s soccer coach, Ruby Meredith. As well as a Stanford University sailing coach that was not named according to a Los Angelas Time’s article regarding the scandal.
As for Lori Loughlin, she and her husband have a set date of April 11 for them to decide either they are going to fight the allegations or plea guilty. The couple has remained silent about their supposed crime but continues to receive backlash for the entirety of the situation.
The response to the college scandal has roared people to feel angry and disgraced towards wealthy families and the colleges involved. The scandal has introduced the reality of celebrity’s power as being rechecked, as it believed should be.
Those who were involved in these scandals are being held accountable for their actions, the parents, admissions of the colleges, student(s), coaches, the President of the colleges, and others.
Unless the scandal continues to fight against the advantage wealthy families obtain over other families, the odds of a child that does not have rich parents may decrease their ability to get into a college they worked hard for. Education is an important and serious matter to be discussed and students deserve to be accepted for their handwork, not for parent’s bribery ability or how deep their pockets are.
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College Admissions Scandal Reveals How Wealthy Buy Advantage
April 6, 2019
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