It was more, I think, in the times after and the months after where I ended up like giving different medical records and all of these things to corroborate my account, but there were a few questions that were very specific to what had happened. MF: verbally. "[2], Fierceton was one of 15 freshmen made Civic Scholars, a program focused on social justice and community service, with an emphasis on confronting the intersections of identity and privilege. She helped SP2 assistant professor Toorjo Ghose draft and promote a petition in support of Police Free Penn, an activist group calling on the university to cut its ties with the Philadelphia Police Department over its poor relations with the largely black and Latin residents of the West Philadelphia neighborhoods around the university's campus, and rethink its own police department, the largest private one in the state. Fierceton began secretly documenting physical and psychological abuse by her mother, a radiologist, during her high school years. Mackenzie, for her part, was accepted to the University of Pennsylvania and, in her sophomore year, won a Rhodes Scholarship. I tried to help as much as I could. Its practically half of Americans, or more. She was . In the presence of her mother that night at their house, Mackenzie repeated the same story to a visiting caseworker, who appeared to accept it. But I agreed to come into this Zoom meeting and this was the last day of November 2020. Mackenzie Fierceton, 24, claimed she was from a poor background and grew up in foster care when she actually attended private school By Phoebe Southworth 13 January 2022 8:00pm Mackenzie. Thank you so much for having me. And what area of it are you going to explore with your Ph.D.? So those questions really came later. But I guess I cant say for sure. There were some pretty basic errors, such as my name, my birth name, and my birth place, and claiming that I didnt have a sibling, that I wasnt low-income, a lot of facts that were pretty easily disputed. And: Did you report what was going on to your school? And then throughout the now a year and a half process [laughs] of different sort of invented processes that happened, eventually the university was like: OK, I guess shes low-income. MF: So [laughs] I feel like I could go on for hours about that. And I think psychologically one way people feel safer about it is to say: No, that happens to other people. On Saturday afternoon, Fierceton said she found herself in a Zoom meeting for several hours with 10 other finalists from this region. Fierceton grew up in a wealthy community and attended an elite private school in a St. Louis suburb. But those definitions arent anywhere to be found. But its interesting because most of the questions are about these applications and then the second half is when it turns to these questions of the abuse. I think they have said, well, theres different definitions and the dean who is the dean of the grad school said: Well, thats not our definition. [4] After gathering all the evidence, they approached Driver's widow, Roxanne Logan, who had not been informed of the accessibility issues and delays involved in her husband's death; in fact she had been given the impression he had been evacuated from the building almost as soon as he began experiencing symptoms. The court granted Morrison a protection order against her former husband; Fierceton had no relationship with him from that time onward. Also, there was a delay in getting the Penn Police there because they didnt know where the building was. Just like some basic questions [laughs] and then a lot of detailed questions about my application. [22] It went into greater detail about her past, providing more substantiation for her abuse allegations from teachers, fellow students and their parents, Carrie Brandt (the police detective who had investigated and arrested Morrison) and her allegations that Morrison had enabled Lovelace's sexual abuse. There were so many there are, I guess I should say so many moving pieces. Jay Caspian Kang sounded similar themes in two different New York Times newsletters discussing Fierceton's story. Youre engaged in a lawsuit with Penn. [2], Fierceton refused, and a week before she withdrew from the Rhodes Scholarship, Penn's Office of Student Conduct (OSC) notified Fierceton it, too, would be investigating. She is suing Penn for defamation, arguing its real goal in investigating her was to discredit her as a witness in and retaliate for a wrongful death suit filed against the university by the widow of a fellow student which Fierceton instigated. That was my personal statement. Right. Her sister also wrote White as well, alleging that Fierceton "deliberately tried to frame Carrie and planted 'evidence' around the house, including her own blood. RG: So, to cut into the interview here real quick, I wanted to add that Mackenzie is referring to a letter sent to the Rhodes Trust in December 2020. But afterwards she was anxious enough about how her mother might react to remain on the other side of the kitchen counter island from Morrison while they talked in the kitchen, "bracing for impact", she wrote in her diary. RG: And it has, has she stuck by that? But those definitions arent anywhere to be found. And then theres also foster siblings in the sense of other people who are in the foster care system who youre living with. [2], At the end of 2013, in the middle of her sophomore year, Fierceton was admitted to St. Luke's, where her mother worked, with a head injury. Her mother had no explanation for the injuries, other than saying perhaps she had done it to herself. [Laughs.]. And again, people, including Penn administrators, have the perception of I think the stereotype and my friend Anea Moore, whos a Rhodes Scholar and graduate of Penn who founded Penn first or co-founded it had a really great quote in The New Yorker about we arent all, quote-unquote something along the lines of like impoverished, inner city kids who go to crumbling public schools as the wider media portrays us to be. Yeah, I mean, so that specific definition wasnt public until 2018. And what was the first-generation community like on campus? And there was also the added threat that they would report me to the federal government for wire fraud if I didnt, again, withdraw from the Rhodes and sign this NDA. Cause then you cant think that it could be you. "[2], Fierceton answered yes. So normally the term FGLI, its just an umbrella term for both. She kept a journal, writing that she was in so much pain from her bruised ribs that she could barely breathe. I didnt encounter many of them in the two years that I was living in foster families. And Ive brought my mentor with me. And its striking to see just the continuing to push of what happened. If youre an independent student, then you should check yes to both boxes. First, Morrison had tried to send Fierceton some jewelry during her freshman year and contacted the university to find out how to get in touch with her; when Fierceton was informed of this she said she had a, "Regardless of the actual reason for her name change," Penn's lawyers write in their response to her lawsuit, "Fierceton effectively fastened a buffer of separation between her real life story and the false story she had cultivated for Penn and others. She was one of only 32 high school students selected from a pool of 2300 applicants. And so was it later, in a different conversation where they asked about the line in the essay about not being able to recognize yourself or is there some illusion to that in the transcript that you found? And so, like I mentioned earlier, I dont want to go over too much of the history that led up to your battle with Penn and with the Rhodes trust, because people can find that in The New Yorker article that came out recently, you went over that in some pretty decent length; in Katie Courics podcast in a recent interview there. RG: She, about 10 years ago, she wrote a comment I think on a Gawker post or something like that that we ended up then re-publishing as an essay at The Huffington Post about, and it was about her life in poverty, and it went viral, millions of people read it, extremely well-written piece. And theyll openly talk about this. Mackenzie Fierceton (born Mackenzie Terrell on August 9, 1997; later Mackenzie Morrison,[1]:6364,86) is an American activist and graduate student currently studying at Oxford University. [2], In December 2021 Fierceton retained another lawyer pro bono and filed her own suit against Penn, alleging that the university's investigations into her history and how she had represented herself was a "sham", undertaken with the intent of forcing her to withdraw from the Rhodes Scholarship and damaging her credibility as a witness in the Driver suit, constituting tortious interference with a business relationship and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. But it was definitely something I saw happening sort of this funneling of kids from the child welfare to criminal justice system. Raised in Chesterfield, Missouri, a West County suburb of St. Louis, she attended and graduated from the Whitfield School in Creve Coeur. Mackenzie Fierceton has lost her Rhodes Scholarship and her University of Pennsylvania master's degree is being held after an anonymous tipster called out alleged inaccuracies in her school. And I was the one who uncovered my classmates death. Michael Hayes, who had prosecuted Morrison, told the Chronicle that "The more I learned, the less certain I became about what really happened. [2], Fierceton shared the information she had with Logan, who in turn took it to a law firm that investigated further. The wellness director told her she would have to notify the state's Department of Social Services (DSS) of the incident. Why would I do that? Doctors diagnosed her with epilepsy, telling her the head injuries that had resulted in her earlier hospitalizations may have been a contributing factor to her developing it. But in this application they had two questions which are to determine financial aid. It was more, I think, in the times after and the months after where I ended up like giving different medical records and all of these things to corroborate my account, but there were a few questions that were very specific to what had happened. And then theres the part that felt like: I have no idea whats going to convince these people if I gave them medical records, I gave them forensic photos of me taken in the hospital, I gave them again like corroboration from professors of like how I described myself, from leaders in the FIGLY community. [2], In public, while she was at Whitfield, Morrison and her daughter seemed to evoke the Gilmore Girls, echoing that television series's main characters, a single mother and her precocious daughter with a close and strong relationship. The Inquirer story came out in November 2020. And I turned over all this information to his widow. The university's police did not know at first where the building was and the city's paramedics did not know how to get to it. And that was the end of it, right? [2], To White, Morrison repeated her story that her daughter had fabricated the abuse allegations. Like questioning: How much blood? MF: And its mentioned briefly. You have a good education and youre clearly smart. In any event, The University of Oxford, where Mackenzies doing her Ph.D., has remained supportive, and in the wake of The New Yorker investigation, and the resulting protests from students and faculty, Penn lifted the hold on her degree. But its relevant to financial aid and the student should check whatever box is going to give them most access to financial aid, which would be yes to both questions. They had done their own investigation again, quotes on investigation and then I had submitted over a hundred pages of documents to them. I reached out for a response to the University of Pennsylvania and also Provost Beth Winkelstein and General Counsel Wendy White for a response, as well as to Mackenzies biological mother. Yeah. Ultimately, she lost her Rhodes Scholarship, and Penn withheld her masters degree, demanding a letter of apology. And the theme of private school definitely came up many times over the course of the last year and a half. And especially, again, like these stereotypes of black and brown, low-income families, the knee-jerk reaction is like: Oh, well, theyre unequipped to be a parent. "She lies better than I can tell the truth. A picture of her was posted at the nurse's station should she make the attempt. Our greatest desire is that Mackenzie chooses to live a happy, healthy, honest, and productive life, using her extraordinary gifts for the highest good." "[20][m] A syndicated morning radio show named Fierceton its "donkey of the day". "I think that we could contribute to the community, the broader Philadelphia community, and the West Philadelphia community more positively, instead of doing things that are not only undermining them but are actively policing them, and end up creating and perpetuating more violence," she told The Daily Pennsylvanian, the university's student newspaper. And so I did definitely have that kind of like: I have no idea what else is going to convince these people. She, to my knowledge, has stuck by that. I think there were almost 30 of those letters again, very similar to who had given statements in the past to corroborate my abuse as well as leaders in the FGLI community saying yes, we started this community. [1]:111112, In her Intercept interview, Grim recounts how this was reported in The New Yorker and asks "So how is a person who is filling out this application supposed to know what definition youre supposed to use?" Mackenzie Fierceton grew up poor, cycling through the rocky child welfare system. [2] Fierceton and her mentor reconstructed the conversation and transcribed it; the university has claimed it is inaccurate but the mentor stands by it. The Chronicle reports that although she spent her final year of high school in foster care, the student had grown up in an affluent suburb of St. Louis with her mother, a radiologist, and attended private schools. And eventually they filed a big wrongful death lawsuit in August 2020. And that felt very powerful in an institution where the overwhelming majority of people are coming from two-parent households, extremely wealthy, like a whole nother level of wealth that I have really ever seen, in my life in terms of just around me, like the 1 percent to the 0.001 percent. [3] "Mackenzie may have centered certain aspects of her background to the exclusion of othersfor reasons we are certain she feels are validin a way that creates a misimpression," the report said. RG: Mhmm. They took photographs of Caster's staircases and elevators, and interviewed witnesses and some of the Penn paramedics who had responded. According to Fierceton, her mother pushed her down the stairs and then beat her extensively at the bottom. I took photos of the building and sent it to them, and I was connecting them with different people who were in my class, who were in his class. She was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome and released after three weeks. And whats the difference between the U.S. and English system? I want to talk about where you think that pushback came from. "[12] Gutmann, soon to step down from her position to serve as U.S. ambassador to Germany, had made increasing the amount of FGLI students at Penn a priority in her previous 17 years as the university's president. And so was it later, in a different conversation where they asked about the line in the essay about not being able to recognize yourself or is there some illusion to that in the transcript that you found? And so they had to see some benefit to them in doing this. In May 2022, after a lengthy article in The New Yorker drew widespread media attention to Fierceton's story, the university dropped the charge and awarded her the degree. It was: Shes a spoiled little brat. And that was the end of it, right? MF: Yeah, so Penn First for the whole FGLI community. "[2][j], The evening the story ran, Ruderman called Fierceton back and told her she had received some anonymously written emails casting doubt on what she had written. I think its a reflection of the systemic prejudices . 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