• Candace Paul
• Entertainment , Opinion
• April 12, 2021
• 3 views

College Cheating Scandal Part II

I published my initial take on “Operation Varsity Blues” – commonly known as “the college cheating scandal”, back in 2019. I intentionally planned to wait until after the court rulings before I published Part II. I had a slight hope that justice would be served in this case – since this was the first time we were able to peek behind the veil and collectively witness how privilege and resources converge to manipulate our educational system. I predicted that the parents involved would get slaps on the wrists (no real punishment) – and that after the dust settled, things would return to how they’ve always been: Wealth buying access to undeserved spaces. Unfortunately, my initial pessimism was spot-on. No new outcomes (I could have published this piece a year ago). Still, a few good things came out of waiting to publish this piece. I not only had the opportunity to watch failed celebrity PR strategies, but I also had the chance to see the eye-opening documentary, “Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal” on Netflix. Now, I can speak on ALL of it! via GIPHY Damage control 101: pretend to care… When news broke about this scandal, the big names involved were scrambling to figure out what to do next. Retaining legal counsel was of course the most important, but immediately after was image repair – especially for the children involved who claimed to be totally unaware of what was happening around them. Lori Loughlin’s Daughter, Olivia Jade Giannulli, was of particular public interest because: 1) her mom played Rebecca – Uncle Jesse’s love interest on “Full House” and in recent years starred in a popular Hallmark TV series; and 2) Olivia Jade was somewhat famous in her own right as a social media make-up influencer. By all accounts, Olivia Jade was already well on her way to being a successful business woman in high school. Prior to all the bad publicity, she managed to secure a brand deal with Sephora, an internationally renown beauty company. Ironically, it was her social media presence that helped bolster the prosecution’s case. She would often lament about having to study or do school work in YouTube videos – never hiding her strong disinterest in academics to millions of followers. So when Olivia Jade and her older sister were accepted to the prestigious University of Southern California (USC), it raised more than a few eyebrows. via GIPHY While her mother was preparing for trial, Olivia Jade asked to be a guest on the popular Facebook Watch series, Red Table Talk, hosted by Jada Pinkett-Smith. During the interview, there was only one thing I wanted to know: Did Olivia Jade know what her parents were doing to get her into school? She doesn’t admit to that – and I don’t think the question was directly asked. But, she had to have known something, or at the very least, was willfully ignorant about the admissions process. She took pictures on a rowing machine which was added to her college application, and her acceptance letter stated that she would be on the rowing team. Olivia never rowed…