Operation Varsity Blues: Let’s be clear on who is to blame

by Molly Meyer Kehoe

 

The college admissions scandal, now infamously dubbed Operation Varsity Blues, epitomizes the privilege and opportunity that comes from wealth. From West to East Coast, the news that parents have been illegally rigging the system to benefit their children is ravaging the nation. People are rightfully enraged that the admissions system has been flooded with bribes to ensure that their children are admitted to some of the most coveted universities nationwide.

Over the past few weeks, America has been privy to the details regarding the money that was spent by parents to obtain falsified SAT or ACT scores or athletic scholarships to aid their non-athlete children’s admission to elite universities.

As can be expected, this has caused outrage across the country. The internet is erupting with criticisms of these families for taking spots from deserving, hardworking students, as well as for instilling bad morals in their children. While there is no way to justify the illegal actions taken by these parents, there is definitely some room for self-reflection on the part of the entire country for how it is demonizing their children.

In many cases as a child, your parents essentially make every important decision regarding your safety, wellbeing, and needs. Going to college is often the first time that children have the opportunity to be mostly independent of their parents. With that, it is also often the first chance that you have to explore new perspectives and formulate your own world view. An important question that has come up throughout this scandal is whether or not the children in these families knew about their parents’ actions. While there is no way to really know, I think it is important to remember how reliant these children had been on their parents up to this point in their lives. Even if the students were informed on some of the choices being made, it seems unreasonable to expect them to be the ones to stand up to their parents’ immorality.

Let’s take the most discussed teen in all of this: Olivia Jade Giannulli. The daughter of actress Lori Loughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli has received the most media attention and criticism, bar none. This has everything to do with her platform as a successful YouTuber and influencer. After stating in one of her videos, which has since been taken down, that she was really just going to USC to party and go to tailgates, the 19-year-old has faced — for lack of a better description — brutal cyberbullying.

This. Is. Not. Okay. Yes, she published a video, maybe a couple, talking about how she did not like school, but that is not illegal. I know that I have had moments in my life where I have said that I hated school. This was never because I genuinely had no respect for the incredible schools that I have been privileged enough to attend, but because I am young. It can be difficult to see the bigger picture of why you should always value your education, especially when it is hard.

Olivia Jade, regardless that she’s famous and her parents have broken the law, is still just a kid. After she released the initial video that is circulating in the media she issued an apology video saying, “I just genuinely want to say I’m sorry for anyone I’ve offended by saying that [I didn’t care about school], I know that it’s a privilege and a blessing.”

It is also important to keep in mind that the children involved in this scandal, like Olivia Jade, were born into this wealth. Just as we aim for a society that does not allow children to be defined by lower socioeconomic circumstances, children born into wealth, at times, may need a similar consideration.

A student at the University of Southern California, who wishes to remain anonymous, opened up about two of her friends who are involved in this scandal, “I know one who was applying to USC who went to my high school, she cannot get in anywhere in the United States so they may move to Europe. The other is back at school and I know her life is vastly different because people do not respect nor like her.”

Some of these students are now facing a backlash that is affecting their ability to thrive at their schools or worse, any chance that they have at ever getting into another American college. These are repercussions that will permeate beyond the moment of this scandal, making it hard for them to ever truly get past this. Maybe the best way to alleviate some of the public grievances would be to rescind the current students’ admissions, but still allow them to re-apply and get in on their own merit.

I am from the San Francisco Bay Area where many of these families are from. Since I grew up in this community of extremely disproportionate wealth, I know people who used their wealth as leverage to get their children as far as possible. Their unique circumstances can often take a toll on the kids’ emotional wellbeing in ways that may not be visible, but still have a profound impact on their lives.

The pressure that parents put on children, starting as young as elementary school, to not only do well in school but to always be the best in order to maintain family status and reputation can be absolutely crushing. As a student from Stanford University said of the scandal, “The actions taken… can be explained by [the families’] view of college as a status symbol, instead of a vehicle for personal and intellectual growth.” This distorted understanding is one that has negatively impacted the ways in which some children are raised to think about the purpose of their education.

With the pressure to earn this “status symbol” can come brutal consequences. People I know who face these pressures are suffering from anxiety and eating disorders, have divorced parents, struggle with substance abuse, or develop other mental health problems. Marin County, the county on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge, has the number one highest teen binge drinking rate as well as one of the highest GDPs in the entire nation. That is not a coincidence.  

This is not to say that any of the actions that these parents took are at all justifiable. There are many legal ways that parents can help their children get into college every year. Another source who wished to remain anonymous said, “I have friends who flew all around the country to visit family friends on boards at universities that they wanted to attend, or whose families had been donating for decades because of legacy.” She explained how when these students receive admission it is generally known in social circles that they had a leg up, however, it is never demonized because these are considered normal steps to take if you are lucky enough to have those connections.

The system of college admissions is rigged toward the upper classes; that is not news to anybody. The parents that broke the law must be held accountable for their actions, however, the attacks on their children are a misplaced focus of a very important moment for the United States. As the source at Stanford University said, “the college admissions process has never been a solely meritocratic one, but rather one rigged in favor of those with wealth and privilege.” With this in mind, the media attention should take this opportunity to shift toward an open dialogue centered on finding ways to moralize and truly create a fair process of college admissions.

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Molly Kehoe (she/her) is an editor and staff writer for Bell. She is a first-year student at UW-Madison studying History, Political Science and Spanish.