US students sue schools in scandal
Lawsuit covers students who applied for and were rejected admission in elite schools between 2012 and 2018
SAN FRANCISCO— Several US students filed a class-action suit against Georgetown, Stanford and other schools tagged in the college admission bribery scandal. The students said applicants who played by the rules were victimized by rich and famous parents who bribed people to get their children into top universities. The lawsuit covers those who applied between 2012 and 2018.
SAN FRANCISCO— Several US students on Wednesday filed a class-action suit against Georgetown, Stanford and other schools tagged in the college admission bribery scandal exposed earlier this week.
The plaintiffs brought the class suit to the federal court in San Francisco on behalf of themselves and other applicants and asked for unspecified damages.
‘A’ students victimized
They argued that applicants who played by the rules were victimized when rich and famous parents paid bribes that enabled unqualified students to get into highly selective universities.
“Each of the universities took the students’ admission application fees while failing to take adequate steps to ensure that their admissions process was fair and free of fraud, bribery, cheating and dishonesty,” the lawsuit said.
50 people charged
The scandal erupted Tuesday when federal prosecutors announced charges against 50 people, including coaches and dozens of parents, among them TV actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.
Prosecutors said parents paid to rig standardized exams and bribed coaches to get their children designated as recruited athletes in sports they didn’t even play, thereby boosting their chances of admission.
The colleges have cast themselves as victims and moved to distance themselves from the coaches by firing or suspending them.
The class suit was initially brought by Stanford students Erica Olsen and Kalea Woods, but it was revised Thursday to remove Olsen and add three students at Tulane, Rutgers and an unnamed community college.
Other schools named in the lawsuit were the University of Southern California, University of California at Los Angeles, Wake Forest University, University of San Diego and University of Texas at Austin.
Fallout begins
In other developments on Thursday:
• The Hallmark Channel cut ties with Loughlin, a longtime star of its feel-good movies.
• Cosmetics company Sephora dropped Loughlin’s daughter Olivia Jade Giannulli, a 19-year-old social media star, as a product endorser.
• Golfer Phil Mickelson said he used the college consulting company accused of orchestrating the scheme but Brown University, where one of his daughters is a sophomore, said it found no evidence of fraud among its athletes.
Legal experts said the class suit is unlikely to succeed in part because the plaintiffs would have to prove that they suffered harm and that the bribery scheme was instigated by the school.
But the plaintiffs said, among other claims, that the universities should have discovered the bribes and that their failure to do so through audits or other practices reflects “an unfair business practice.”
The lawsuit seeks to represent everyone who applied between 2012 and 2018, paid an application fee and was rejected by one of the named schools.
David Levine, a legal expert at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, said the plaintiffs may succeed in getting back application fees but probably not much else.