Students expelled over bogus 'blackface' claims just taught the school a valuable lesson worth over $1 million



A pair of 14-year-old boys donned acne face masks along with a friend in August 2017. Realizing they looked "silly," they decided to take a selfie — having no idea that a mob of thin-skinned ideologues might jump to conclusions years down the road.

The photo resurfaced in June 2020. It was immediately seized upon as an example of the racism that was supposedly everywhere in the aftermath of the deadly Black Lives Matter riots.

Rather than launch a proper investigation, which would have undoubtedly cleared the boys of any wrongdoing, the teens' school effectively branded them as racists then had them expelled.

"We would never wish the pain, humiliation, and suffering St. Francis has inflicted on our families on anyone," said the Hughes family

Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, California, has paid the price for rushing to judgment.

With the help of the Dhillon Law Group, which has represented other minors similarly traduced over racially-charged hoaxes, the teens, Holden Hughes and Aaron Harley, sued the high school with their parents for over $20 million. While ultimately unable to exact the full toll for their malignment, the former students walked walked away this week with $1 million plus tuition reimbursement.

The Los Angeles Times indicated that a Santa Clara County jury sided with the former students who claimed the school breached an oral contract and failed to give them due process before expelling them.

"Twenty percent of our boys' lives have been spent seeing this process come to fruition. But the sacrifice is worth it to clear our boys' names, and to try and make sure that St. Francis can never again assume a child is guilty without giving a child the opportunity to show their innocence. To never again sacrifice any child to protect the school's reputation like they did our boys," the Hughes family said in a statement.

"We would never wish the pain, humiliation, and suffering St. Francis has inflicted on our families on anyone, but we are thankful that the jury has spoken, and vindicated our boys, and forced St. Francis to finally take responsibility for their repeated personal attacks on the boys," added the family.

Background

The original complaint indicated that on Aug. 17, 2017, Hughes and Hartley, then both 14 years old, put on white acne masks that Hartley's mother purchased to help with his skin condition, reported NBC News.

"Believing themselves to look 'silly' in the masks, [Harley] and [a friend from another school identified as Minor III] took a time-stamped photograph of themselves in the masks," said the lawsuit.

The next day, Hughes, Hartley and Minor III instead tried on a light green acne face mask.

"Again, they took a silly photograph in this mask, which had turned dark green by the time it dried on their faces," said the lawsuit.

— (@)

The boys did not share the image online. However, Minor III shared it to a friend, who ultimately "tagged a music playlist on her Spotify account with a copy of the photograph."

Years later, a student at the school reportedly obtained a copy of the photo, named the students, and insinuated that they had engaged in blackface.

Alicia Labana, a parent originally named as a defendant in the suit, made matters worse by allegedly posting the photo on Facebook ahead of a planned march to protest "outrageous behavior" and to pressure the school to act.

According to lawsuit, the image was condemned by school staff and parents alike and prompted a parent-led protest against the minors.

Jason Curtis, president of the school, reportedly rushed to issue a public condemnation. Absent an investigation into the image, a hearing taking up the accusations or the involvement of the school's review board, Hartley and Hughes were told within 24 hours of the scandal breaking they had to withdraw from the school or face expulsion.

The teens left the school in June 2020 and filed suit the following year.

Hughes reportedly indicated his family had to put up security cameras around their home and pled with the Los Altos Police to execute additional patrols in the area for fear of attacks.

Hartley said his family had to move away on account of the persistent harassment and that he had to complete high school remotely, reported the Post.

Vindicated

The Palo Alto Post reported that a jury of 12 reached their verdict on Monday following 20 days of testimony and three days of deliberation. The boys will receive $500,000 each from the high school and be reimbursed for their tuition, an estimated $70,000 for their three years at Saint Francis High School.

Saint Francis High School spokesman Jamie Perkins said in a statement obtained by the Post, "We respectfully disagree with the jury's conclusion … regarding the fairness of our disciplinary review process and are exploring legal options, including appeal as there is no legal precedent applying that claim to a high school."

The former students' legal team suggested that this case establishes a new precedent by extending protections set by the California Supreme Court in Boermeester v. Carry, which requires fair procedure rights for students at private universities. Accordingly, such fair procedure rights will allegedly apply to private high schools.

Krista Baughman, partner at the Dhillon Law Group, stated, "This case is significant not only for our clients but for its groundbreaking effect on all private high schools in California, which are now legally required to provide fair procedure to students before punishing or expelling them."

"The jury's verdict finally cleared our clients' names after four long years of repeated personal attacks from St. Francis High School. Schools are supposed to protect and nurture children, not sacrifice them when it is convenient for public relations purpose," added Karin Sweigart, counsel with the Dhillon Law Group.

The former students' parents expressed hope that this result will prompt the school's board of directors to "hold those responsible for these actions and make needed changes to protect students moving forward."

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Activists rage over racist vandalism at a Sacramento high school. The district says a black student was caught on camera committing the hoax.



Activist community members were outraged when racist vandalism was found at a Sacramento high school, but officials said they discovered the culprit was a black female student who was caught on camera.

Activists marched with signs that read, "END ANTI-BLACK HATE" and "NO ROOM FOR HATE" in front of the C.K. McClatchy High School after someone scrawled "white" and "colored" over water fountains on Friday.

On Thursday, the Sacramento City Unified School District said they had identified the perpetrator and said she was a black female student.

Mark T. Harris, the district's race and equity monitor, told KOVR-TV that the student was captured on camera and that she had confessed to the vandalism. He said that he didn't consider the incident racist because of the race of the student.

"I don't believe that those words that were on those water fountains were racist," said Harris. "I do not believe they were hate crime or hate speech. Part of it, quite honestly, is because the admitted perpetrator is an African-American young woman."

But not all the activists are satisfied with the official conclusion of the investigation.

Berry Accius from the Voice of the Youth is calling for zero tolerance over the incident.

"I disagree with it not being a hate crime because at the end of the day, we understand, when you have colored on one water faucet and white on another water faucet, what that means," said Accius. "Whether it's 1950 or 2022!"

Accius and other activists say the district needs to be more transparent, and they cited another incident at Abraham Lincoln Elementary where graffiti was found of a swastika, the N-word and "KKK."

The district said the student was being disciplined over the water fountain incident.

Here's a local news report about the race hoax:

Person Identified In Racist Incident At McClatchy Highwww.youtube.com

Debra Messing says Republicans 'still defend the Nazis' from Charlottesville rally in reaction to hate hoax targeting Glenn Youngkin



Actress Debra Messing attempted to draw a parallel to the hate hoax carried out by alleged Democratic activists against Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin on Friday to the white supremacist "Unite the Right" rally that took place in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. The actress turned Democrat activist reacted to the bizarre political stunt by claiming that "Republicans still defend the Nazis" from the Charlottesville rally.

A political scheme with a mission to embarrass Youngkin and hurt his election prospects was executed on Friday. Alleged Democratic activists were planted in front of Youngkin's campaign bus. The four men and one woman wore khakis and white button-down shirts while holding tiki torches – the same aesthetic that white supremacists had during the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 11, 2017. Anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project took credit for the race hoax – but only after reports that the alleged white supremacists were Democratic activists.

These men approached @GlennYoungkin’s bus as it pulled up saying what sounded like, “We’re all in for Glenn.” Here… https://t.co/MwHz1ix5ud

— Elizabeth Holmes (@holmes_reports) 1635518197.0

Several Democrats tripped over themselves to attack Youngkin over the stunt that appears to have used Democrat activists posing as white supremacists – including Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwellof California and members of McAuliffe's campaign team.

WCTI-TV reported on McAuliffe campaign members who pushed the hate hoax before deleting tweets.

McAuliffe's spokesperson Christina Freundlich retweeted a post from the local reporter who covered the incident. Freundlich said in her retweet that "The Unite the Right rally was one of the darkest days in the Commonwealth's history. this is who Glenn Youngkin's supporters are."

"This is disgusting and disqualifying," said Jenifer Goodman, a communications staffer for McAuliffe, in another retweet of the local Virginia reporter's initial coverage of the incident. Both tweets have since been deleted.

Charlie Olaf – McAuliffe's social-media manager – also treated the race hoax as a real white supremacy demonstration by writing on Twitter, "Disgusting reference to the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville."

Do you see how casually Democratic operatives play with racism and race accusations, like it's their little private… https://t.co/HXcJZhO6zF

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) 1635545414.0

Messing alleges that she did not fall for the race hoax, but she did use the political stunt to make an unsubstantiated attack on Republicans.

"Oh I didn't fall for it, nor do I approve of it, but the POINT is Republicans still defend the Nazis with tiki torches at #Charlottesville, & now there is faux outrage bc they don't want voters reminded of their most loyal ( and welcomed) supporters," Messing tweeted on Friday.

Following the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, every major Republican denounced the hateful demonstration – including, but not limited to, then-President Donald Trump, then-Vice President Mike Pence, then-Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, then-House majority leader Kevin McCarthy, former Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, and then-White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

Messing continued to utilize the Lincoln Project chicanery to link Youngkin to the Charlottesville Nazis from 2017.

"Interesting. The reminder that @GlennYoungkin tacitly approved of the #Charlottesville Nazis is making more people outraged than the actual Nazis," the former "Will & Grace" actress said.

Interesting. The reminder that @GlennYoungkin tacitly approved of the #Charlottesville Nazis is making more people… https://t.co/lqwhmlz12a

— Debra Messing✍🏻 (@DebraMessing) 1635545638.0

Messing did appear to fall for a tongue-in-cheek article from the satirical website Babylon Bee.

Messing shared a Babylon Bee article with the headline: "KKK Member Posing By Glenn Youngkin's Bus Turns Out To Be Ralph Northam," a reference to the allegations that the Democratic governor of Virginia was dressed in racist costumes featured in his 1984 medical school yearbook.

Messing retweeted the fake article with the caption: "Wait WHAT???"

Wait WHAT??? https://t.co/zoWjAXJGN5

— Debra Messing✍🏻 (@DebraMessing) 1635546170.0

Auto shop vandalized with racist graffiti, so the owner installed cameras. Video captured two black suspects.



A black-owned automobile shop had been targeted for weeks by vandals leaving racist graffiti but the owner was surprised to find out the suspects were also black after he set up surveillance cameras.

The incident unfolded at Dwayne Haynesworth's Auto Body and Repair Shop in Spring Lake, North Carolina.

Haynesworth told WRAL that he was confused by the racist images left on cars by vandals over several weeks.

"I mean I'm not bothering anybody. I'm just out here trying to do business. I don't really know anybody out here," he said.

The spray painted swastikas and KKK figures on his cars and left the message, "please leave." They also damaged several vehicles. The owner said that the vandalism started after one of his vehicles was stolen from the lot he rents.

Haynesworth then set up surveillance cameras to capture images of the vandals.

Just 24 hours later, he showed the video to WRAL's Gilbert Baez.

The video showed two young males who appear to be black trying to steal one of Haynesworth's cars. The shop owner says there was more damage done to his vehicles, including paint scratches and windows broken.

One clue that might have tipped off the police to the incident being not a legitimate instance of white supremacy was that the swastika had one of the arms painted backwards.

Image Source: WRAL-TV video screenshot

Baez noted that the suspects appeared to be smoking a "blunt" on the video captured of them, and added that police didn't take any fingerprints at the scene of the crime.

The Spring Lake Police Department posted screenshots from the surveillance video on their Facebook page and asked for the public's help in identifying the suspects.

Here's the local news video about the incident:

White BLM activist forced to apologize for pretending to be black after being outed



A social justice activist in Indiana who has allegedly been pretending to be black for years finally admitted that she is actually a white woman. This is the third instance of a white woman pretending to be black this month.

Satchuel Cole was a member of Indy10 Black Lives Matter and the Indy SURJ, an Indianapolis-based chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice, a "national network of groups and individuals working to undermine white supremacy and to work for racial justice."

On Wednesday, Cole revealed that she had been lying about her race and offered an apology on a Facebook post.

"Friends, I need to take accountability for my actions and the harm that I have done," Cole wrote. "My deception and lies have hurt those I care most about. I have taken up space as a Black person while knowing I am white. I have used Blackness when it was not mine to use. I have asked for support and energy as a Black person."

"I have caused harm to the city, friends and the work that I held so dear," Cole continued. "I will do the work to take responsibility for my actions and try to reduce the harm that I have already caused."

"If there are ways to repair the harm, I will do the work that is required to do so," she wrote. "I will continue to seek the help necessary to heal myself. I am sorry for the harm I have caused. I am sorry for the hurt and betrayal. I will do what I can to show that I want to be a better person."

Cole was forced to confess that she had committed racial fraud after she was exposed in an article titled "Shocking Details Emerge on Indy Activist Who Faked Life as a Black Woman" published on BlackIndyLIVE.

Cole allegedly told multiple people that she was from a biracial family and that her father is black. BlackIndyLive reported that Cole's parents "indicated their races as white on legal documents."

The Indy10 Black Lives Matter group issued a statement on the situation.

"Satchuel Cole is not a member of Indy10 Black Lives Matter and has not been a part of any community initiatives for several months," the statement on Facebook said. "We found out about her deceit at the same time that most people did, in the last week."

In 2018, Cole founded the No Questions Asked Food Pantry, a grassroots food pantry that partnered with Indy10 Black Lives Matter, Indy Pride, Queering Indy, and Indy Feminists.

In May, the Central Indiana Community Foundation awarded more than $1 million in responsive grants to several Marion County's non-profit organizations during the coronavirus pandemic. Cole's No Questions Asked Food Pantry received $35,000 in funding from the CICF, according to the IndyStar.

"[W]e are disappointed that we have another instance of a white woman claiming to be a Black woman and it continues to perpetuate issues that we see in the community and it creates divisiveness," Pamela Ross, vice president of opportunity, equity and inclusion at CICF, told the IndyStar.

"This situation has created a different level of conversation about telling the truth," Ross said. "We are looking at leaders and at how many leaders of color actually are running these organizations. That does matter, but it does not matter in an application, it matters in the conversation because we want to influence more leaders of color."

Cole was the vice president of the now-defunct Deconstructing Oppression Now Through Solidarity Liberation Equity Empowerment & Perseverance.

Cole was the spokesperson for the family of Aaron Bailey, a 45-year-old who was shot and killed by two Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers following a traffic stop in June 2017.

Satchuel Cole, VP of social-justice organization DONT SLEEP, was critical of the city: “I don’t understand why we c… https://t.co/VhEMz29qkH
— Holly Hays (@Holly Hays)1525995990.0

Cole, who is also an active member of the LGBTQ+ community, was a grand marshal of this year's Indy Pride Parade.

According to a civil court docket, Cole was born "Jennifer Lynn Benton" and identified as a white female on paper before 2010. She changed her name in Hamilton Circuit Court to "Satchuel Paigelyn Cole," a reference to legendary Negro League pitcher Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige and Benton's close friend, Chantelle-Owens-Cole.

Crystal Turner, who knew Cole, said she felt betrayed by her racial misrepresentation.

"She said it was to discuss BLM and the first thing I asked was 'Why is this Black Lives Matter meeting being ran by a white woman?' But she explained her lie of a story and she had enough other people betrayed that they vouched for her," Turner said. "And she would constantly acknowledge she was able to pass for white ... and how she had to use that to help others."

"So I'm sure a lot of people, like I did, just thought she was really aware of her privilege as a biracial Black woman, not that she was a white woman just pretending for years," Turner said of Cole.

This is the latest case of white women pretending to be black. Jessica Krug, a white associate professor at George Washington University, revealed earlier this month that she was pretending to be a black woman.

CV Vitolo-Haddad, a white University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student, resigned this week from a teaching assistant position after she was caught pretending to be a black person.

White University of Wisconsin-Madison grad student resigns from teaching position after lying about being black



CV Vitolo-Haddad, a white University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student, has resigned from a teaching assistant position after being caught pretending to be a black person, according to reports.

Following allegations, Vitolo-Haddad admitted she is not black or Latino. She is in fact, a white Italian American. After the revelation of racial misrepresentation, Vitolo-Haddad stepped down from her teaching assistant position. She also resigned as co-president of UW-Madison's chapter Teaching Assistants' Association.

A Medium post from an anonymous person made allegations that Vitolo-Haddad pretended to be a person of color. The motivation for the post came from the recent news about Jessica A. Krug, a white history professor at George Washington University specializing in African studies who "canceled" herself earlier this month after admitting that she lied about being black. The school is now offering counseling to students impacted by Krug's racial dishonesty.

"When the Jessica A. Krug story came out yesterday I was shocked, but not by the extent of her deception. What caught my attention, instead, were the parallels between her story and that of someone I know," the Medium post said. "I have long suspected CV Vitolo, a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, of engaging in the same kind of race-shifting and copious lying that now has people enraged with Krug (and which distracts from the important work and struggles of actual Black thinkers, both in and outside of the academy)."

"I first met CV around four years ago, when they joined the Department of Communication Arts at UW Madison where I, as an affiliate of the university, had many friends," the anonymous claim reads. "They were quick to call themselves a 'person of color,' intimating that perhaps we even shared some heritage."

The Medium entry shared social media posts from Vitolo-Haddad, claiming that she "heavily implied that they were Latinx" and was a victim of racism.

"Though their claim to a POC identity was vague, the one consistency was their insistence that they were a constant target of acts of racism and that they came from some kind of nonwhite background," the post said.

"According to the post, Vitolo-Haddad's last name, Haddad, was 'appropriated' from a previous marriage, and Vitolo-Haddad grew up in a wealthy Italian family in Florida," the Badger Herald reported.

There is also an 11-page document "compiled and researched by a collective of Madison academics and activists who have had a variety of personal experience with CV." The document detailed Vitolo-Haddad's actions while at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, including her alleged "racial misrepresentation."

Vitolo-Haddad wrote an apology in a Medium post on Sept. 6, the New York Post reported.

"I am so deeply sorry for the ways you are hurting right now because of me," Vitolo-Haddad wrote in the post. "You have expressed confusion, shock, betrayal, anger, and mistrust. All of those things are a consequence of how I have navigated our relationships and the spaces we share."

"I have let guesses about my ancestry become answers I wanted but couldn't prove," Vitolo-Haddad wrote. "I have let people make assumptions when I should have corrected them."

"The first step towards that, however, is to resign my position as co-president of the Teaching Assistants' Association (TAA)," Vitolo-Haddad continued. "Second, I have resigned from my teaching position at UW-Madison."

"Education is build on a foundation of trust and accountability, and until I repair that I should not be teaching," said Vitolo-Haddad, who worked at UW-Madison's School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Vitolo-Haddad penned a second apology on Medium on Sept. 8 where she claimed that her "parents have conflicting stories" about their ancestry.

"First, I am deeply sorry and regretful to the people I deceived by inserting myself into Black organizing spaces I didn't belong in," the post stated. "That deception was parasitic and harmful."

"What I know is that I am Southern Italian/Sicilian," Vitolo-Haddad stated. "In trying to make sense of my experiences with race, I grossly misstepped. I went along with however people saw me. I over-identified with unreliable and unproven family history and latched onto anything I remembered growing up."

"When asked if I identify as Black, my answer should have always been 'No,'" Vitolo-Haddad said. "I should have never entered Black organizing spaces. They are not my place. Once realizing this, it wasn't sufficient to just leave; I should have explained that directly to the people who invited me and clarified my identity."

"I want to apologize for ever taking lies about Cuban roots at face value, and for subsequently attaching myself to people's perceptions of me as though it would provide answers where there are none," Vitolo-Haddad added. "Additionally, I want to apologize for how my failure to own up to these harmful decisions publicly made every conversation on social media about the varied ways I've been racialized a source of confusion and deception."

"What I know now is that perception is not reality. Race is not flat, it is a social construct rife with contradictions," Vitolo-Haddad wrote. "Fighting racism never required dissociating myself from whiteness. In fact, it derailed the cause by centering my experience."

The TAA condemned Vitolo-Haddad in a statement. "We condemn CV Vitolo-Haddad's appropriation of Black and Brown identities in no uncertain terms … we recognize that our union is the product of a labor movement infused with white supremacy and anti-Blackness," the TAA said.

The TAA accused Vitolo-Haddad of "manipulating and gaslighting Black and Brown community members who tried holding them accountable." The TAA apologized for "unknowingly rewarded the toxic opportunism of performing Blackness."

In light of recent allegations, CV Vitolo-Haddad has officially stepped down from their position as TAA co-presiden… https://t.co/FzvnKWLysq
— TAA (@TAA)1599484950.0

UW-Madison spokeswoman Meredith McGlone confirmed that Vitolo-Haddad no longer works at the university.

"UW-Madison expects that people represent themselves authentically and accurately in all aspects of their academic work," McGlone told the The Daily Cardinal.

California State University, Fresno, recently offered a tenure-track job to Vitolo-Haddad for the fall 2021 semester, but is reconsidering after the recent allegations of racial fraud.

"The Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs is aware of the concerns regarding CV Vitolo-Haddad that have been appearing online," the school said in a statement released on Sept. 14. "Please know that this matter is currently under review. The University will always uphold its core values of discovery, diversity and distinction. We are taking this matter seriously and acknowledge the pain and confusion this situation has caused members of our campus and external community."

Vitolo-Haddad wrote extensively about white nationalism in articles and on her now-deleted Twitter account. She also wrote articles titled, "Dear White People: Loving A Black Person Isn't Activism" and "Who Gets To Punch Nazis, And When, According To The American Public." Vitolo-Haddad's YouTube channel, Doctoral Defense, features videos titled, "Examining Race" and "What the Right Gets Wrong About Biology."

Episode 3: What the Right Gets Wrong About Biologywww.youtube.com