RG: So how is a person who is filling out this application supposed to know what definition youre supposed to use? She had seen no signs of abuse in the relationship and considered Fierceton to be the dominant personality in it. Fierceton believes it was likely sent by Morrison or one of her close relatives. Mackenzie Fierceton was championed as a former foster youth who had overcome an abusive childhood and won a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. 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 scholarship applications. The New Yorker reported that Fierceton reported this to Penn's campus police, fearing that her mother had somehow found out where she was living. [3] In high school there, Fierceton was a model student. Theyre not on a website. Fierceton wished that she had been more willing to correct mistaken impressions that she might have made and at the time "just kind of crumbled behind the pressure. Ryan Grim: This weeks guest on Deconstructed is Mackenzie Fierceton, who was the subject of a recent story in The New Yorker. How much research has been done on the foster-care-to-prison-pipeline? Mackenzie is currently suing the university. And I just want to read this for people. He was earlier arrested in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The mother of a friend of Fierceton's recalls that when she told Morrison on the phone that she "was not interested" in hearing what Morrison had to say, she got angry and confrontational. At Oxford University, Mackenzie Fierceton will conduct research on the "foster care-to-prison" pipeline. The fact that they even challenged that really does expose a lot of whats going on here because I assume in their mind, theyre saying: Well, she went to this private school; she had a nice house; her mom probably drove a nice car maybe you even drove a decent car! She told Brandt it was her mother, and asked her to keep Morrison from coming to her room. Mhmm. 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. I think for a lot of us, we have to sort of other poverty and abuse and put it in a box, partly, to protect ourselves. Enough blood? [5] She posted it before Fierceton's release from the hospital, and once free began calling Fierceton's friends and former teachers, telling them that Fierceton was having issues and had made it appear Morrison had beaten her. But part of it is funding decisions. And it felt very similar that, well, this cant be real. 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? Morrison's name was therefore ordered removed from the DSS registry. RG: And what was the first-generation community like on campus? I think this is a conversation not necessarily for people who are still in question about what happened here. While that was not literally true, Penn's own definition of an FGLI student included those who have a "strained or limited" relationship with a parent who has graduated from college. RG: Instead, I want to talk more about what this says about the system, that something so seemingly irrational could be produced by this system, and actually could be predicted to be produced by this system in some ways. But part of it is funding decisions. Deconstructed is a production of First Look Media and The Intercept. As in her case, first responders had experienced similar delays in finding and reaching the building, and difficulties removing Driver once they did due to the same accessibility issues. 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. [2] When she turned 18, she formally left foster care[d] but continued living with the family whose home she was in. So you use what you have, uh, which are the definitions that were already out there. Another program official that year recalls Fierceton as seeming more vulnerable than she let on; after picking her up from the hospital following bone surgery that year, she noticed that Fierceton had a very light winter coat and few other possessions. And then as the different internships, and then I went to get my masters in social work and all of this happened, I started to see that continue in different capacities while I was in different roles, seeing that theme in this relationship between foster care and the criminal justice system. And that was the end of it, right? A former teacher in elementary school recalled that in one of those calls, Morrison made a reference to an earlier discussion of Fierceton's mental illness; the teacher did not remember any such conversation. Fellow students, their parents and Whitfield faculty also noticed signs which led them to suspect abuse. She didnt know he was in the basement. In The New Yorker piece, a nurse assigned to Mackenzie is quoted as saying, She had two black eyes, and her hair was full of blood. And I dont remember all of the questions, but it was a really intense, rapid fire of really difficult and challenging questions. And so I wanted to start with where things really started to unravel for you. [2], Fierceton remained in the hospital, where DSS ordered her placed in protective custody. And I also think we have this racist and classist notion of who can be an abuser or who can cause harm. Uh, my lawyer. Because thats not how we understand poverty. "[1]:119, Dismissal of mother's charges and expurgation of records, Role in wrongful death suit against university, In its response to Fierceton's suit, Penn quotes Fierceton as telling police as soon as they entered her hospital room after her later injury about her diary and that it would tell them everything they would need to know. Her mother was arrested and charged with child abuse, but those charges were later dropped; state courts later expunged the arrest and ordered her removed from the state's child-abuser registry. That they would forward charges to the federal government of wire fraud. Yeah. But it was just kind of this rapid fire of: If we look at your medical records, are we going to see you had broken ribs and severe facial injuries? That is when I would trace it back to. When I came to Penn and saw all of these students who were living that life, there was a sense of community and solidarity amongst us, which was very powerful for me because I just felt so out of place. And I started interviewing people who were in the class where he died and who were in nearby classes where he died, who knew him, and paramedics who were Penn paramedics and just as many people as I could. RG: Well, Mackenzie, thank you so much for joining me and sharing your story. And I ended up reading the comments, and the comments were just horrendous. [7] The charges against Lovelace were dropped later for lack of evidence. [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. Gathering outside Caster, whose renovation they also demanded, they marched toward College Hall, where Winkelstein had taken over as interim provost following Gutmann's departure, and chanted for her ouster as well. They took photographs of Caster's staircases and elevators, and interviewed witnesses and some of the Penn paramedics who had responded. It recommended the scholarship be rescinded. In her reading, Tracy came across an article that congratulated Mackenzie Fierceton, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, on being named a Rhodes Scholar. he asked in the first. Enough bruises? Anything interesting in that that you noticed? And my biological family did not fit those stereotypes, and I think that was really hard for people to process. Our focus is not on the debate it reviews over Mackenzie Fierceton's accounts of her life, though we affirm her integrity. Whereas white parents, a lot of times, it is much harder the bar is much higher to remove them from their homes because their whiteness or possibly class privilege or whatever identities that they have that might not fit a social worker or judges or whoevers involved perception of whose kids should be in the foster system. RG: And it has, has she stuck by that? [23] In mid-April, Penn released Fierceton's master's degree. [Laughs.] You had mentioned that you actually made a transcript of your interview with Deputy Provost Finkelstein shortly after the conversation. Our concern is instead with the conduct of our. [2][5] It did not disclose that it had done so until March. [1]:86, Morrison prospered in her medical career, and she provided generously for her daughter, allowing her to ride horses, go on river rafting trips and attend exclusive private schools, such as Whitfield, in nearby Creve Coeur, where annual tuition was almost $30,000. You didnt grow up in crumbling projects your entire life. And it was a very similar situation where it took everyone a long time to get to the building. And how much confidence do you have that that anonymous complainer was Carrie, your biological mother. And you experienced that yourself, right? But that was definitely a driving force for why I decided, ultimately, to withdraw because I felt like: OK, federal prison is no joke. So you use what you have, uh, which are the definitions that were already out there. And how much confidence do you have that that anonymous complainer was Carrie, your biological mother. 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. But in this application they had two questions which are to determine financial aid. [2], Two weeks after the New Yorker article was published, Fierceton gave an interview to The Intercept's Ryan Grim for an installment of the Deconstructed podcast. But her mother wasnt finished with her. or in graduate school. And in the U.S., there is much more pressure to pull kids out of homes, right? And I asked in the email exchange: Is this about the anonymous email? I do think that it is a huge defense mechanism that people deploy. [2] Winkelstein, who has a Ph.D. in bioengineering and has studied injuries,[3] then proceeded to interrogate Fierceton at length about her abuse and hospitalization, in a manner that led Fierceton to believe that not only did Winkelstein doubt her story but had spoken with Morrison. But that was definitely a driving force for why I decided, ultimately, to withdraw because I felt like: OK, federal prison is no joke. And then instantly people started picking her story apart. It didnt have any facts of the case. RG: I want to talk about where you think that pushback came from. We started building this, and this is exactly who we built it for. But the acclaim quickly devolved into acrimony as the university and the Rhodes Trust began questioning aspects of Fiercetons backstory. "[3][l], The Chronicle story led to nationwide coverage,[17][18] most of which framed the narrative as Penn and the Rhodes Trust had in their reports, depicting Fierceton as yet another exposed fraud. MF: Its hard to say. Penn acknowledged that, for that reason, it could not state definitely that those events did not take place but still, "the way [she] presents this information invites the reader to speculate when she herself states she does not have a clear recollection of the nature of this event, if it occurred. And I think said something along the lines of there were things missing and it was distorted. In November 2020, Mackenzie Fierceton was one of just 32 students to be awarded the Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford. Fierceton grew up in a wealthy community and attended an elite private school in a St. Louis suburb. MF: She, to my knowledge, has stuck by that. I mean, youd been taking loss after loss, despite having the facts on your side. And what was the first-generation community like on campus? Within a year of her arrest, another St. Louis-area hospital had granted her admitting privileges, and she was able to resume her medical career. So first-generation and/or low-income, again, is the acronym. I tried to help as much as I could. And it became pretty clear to me that there had been a very similar delay in his care, but even worse dynamics. RG: Right. Whereas white parents, a lot of times, it is much harder the bar is much higher to remove them from their homes because their whiteness or possibly class privilege or whatever identities that they have that might not fit a social worker or judges or whoevers involved perception of whose kids should be in the foster system. Its, in my opinion, because they get overlooked and the kids like me are kind of rendered invisible by the privileges of our biological families. RG: as a kid. The reporter had assumed based on her status as a FGLI student which stands for first-generation, low-income that she had been poor her entire life. Because Im not under any illusion that Im the typical foster kid. [2], In March 2014, Fierceton began keeping a secret diary[a] documenting her life and her ruminations on her situation, writing it in her bedroom closet by the light of her phone and hiding it behind a ventilation panel. By the end of the year she was in a third foster home. So they heard from her and immediately they call you into a meeting with the deputy provost at the time, Beth Winkelstein . Or was the real issue that Fierceton did not really fit the profile of a suffering student who needed the benevolence of an Ivy League school?" She lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital, where she spent three days in intensive care. Yeah, so Penn First for the whole FGLI community. She kept a journal, writing that she was in so much pain from her bruised ribs that she could barely breathe. Cause then you cant think that it could be you. box, it's like you have to fit yourself in, saying: Are you the first in your family to attend? Is that just an interpretation or did they say anything that suggested to you that the fact that you had gone to a private school and grown up in an upper-middle-class situation meant that you could never at any point consider yourself low-income? 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. RG: And how much did she challenge your medical condition after that beating? In the lawsuit filed on Dec. 21, Fierceton, a 2021 School of Social Policy . She retained two lawyers to represent her pro bono; they talked to Morrison themselves, who told them she still loved her daughter and wanted her to come home. 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. And then there was this other foster sibling who was the biological kid of the foster parents I was staying with, and spelling it out in that way. [9] In a news release, Penn's then-president Amy Gutmann, a daughter of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany who had herself been the first in her family to attend college,[11] spoke admiringly of Fierceton as "a first-generation low-income student and a former foster youth. [2], In July the OSC concluded its investigation with a 31-page report sent to provost Wendell Pritchett examining Fierceton's background more extensively than the Rhodes Trust had. woman who won a coveted scholarship in the US to study at Oxford after claiming she was poor, overcame childhood abuse and grew up in foster care lost the opportunity after it emerged she was. So they didnt ask about that in this meeting. So the Rhodes Trust ended up after their quote-investigation, and I submitted all the evidence, they ended up still recommending that my scholarship be rescinded, uh, but I had another opportunity to respond to their report, which I absolutely wanted to do. The reporter had assumed based on her status as a FGLI student which stands for first-generation, low-income that she had been poor her entire life. [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. And then she hired a law firm and eventually they were doing their own investigation for several months. [2], Classmates who told Fierceton this also noted the similarities to another medical emergency in September 2018, when a 38-year-old SP2 graduate named Cameron Driver had suffered a cardiac event during a class in Caster's basement. But teachers noticed that Fierceton often seemed physically uncomfortable in her mother's presence, and a close friend noted that she was often injured. verbally. I wrote a poem about the actual what the message was, which is so cheesy and Im cringing at my 17-year-old self [laughs], but it was about the healing power of gratitude. 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