And at the time I was like: Why what? Others echoed the criticism. They reported it to the state's child-abuse hotline. And I was in a kind of unique situation where I applied to grad school at the beginning of my sophomore year of college, because I sub-matriculated. [2] Her father, Billy Terrell,[1] had been an actor in soap operas. Fierceton, according to Penn's response, had learned during her parents' divorce how to make calls to the child-abuse hotline and that teachers were mandatory reporters. Right. Penn shut down in-person classes and gave students living on campus a week to find somewhere else to live until it was safe to return. Mackenzies critics even began nitpicking how much blood was in her hair while she was in the intensive care unit. Anything in particular jump out at you after having read back over that transcript? RG: Yeah. box, it's like you have to fit yourself in, saying: Are you the first in your family to attend? Even though I had, again, written statements from two ICU nurses who took care of me saying: Yes, there was blood, [laughs] theres photographs, and there still was the argument of like, there wasnt enough blood or your face wasnt so distorted you could couldnt tell who you were. [19] The New York Post wrote that "[t]he case exposes the murky underbelly of elite schools like Penn. There was, yes, disagreement, because I said there was blood in my hair in the essay, they said there wasnt enough blood or there wasnt blood or something. I identify with the FGLI umbrella term and definitely being a low-income student, but Ive never really called myself a standalone first-generation. And the theme of private school definitely came up many times over the course of the last year and a half. She has a bachelor's degree in political science from Penn and was working on a master's in social work. "I advised him that this was ridiculous, and this had to be a 'status thing", she said. She had bruises all over her body in different stages of healing an obvious sign of child abuse.. So Im not sure how much could have been missing. Then, the first-generation box. Its just so obvious that you fit the criteria for low-income, but it seems like they feel like you dont fit it in the spirit of how they want it. Photograph by Robbie Lawrence for The New Yorker Mackenzie Fierceton grew up in a middle-class suburb of St. Louis. And now they have to face the fact that someone who looks like them, who shares all these identities with them, could be the source of all of this harm. Cause I had assumed it was her. And it became pretty clear to me that there had been a very similar delay in his care, but even worse dynamics. And we had a fairly lengthy conversation, just kind of going through the ins and outs of my childhood and left it at, she was like: OK, I understand now and Im just going to leave this. But while OSC allowed that it may not have been Fierceton's explicit intent to deceive, she had still done so, particularly when checking "yes" on the question on her SP2 application as to whether she was the first in her family to attend college (Fierceton stands by her reliance on Penn's definitions of FGLI on the Penn Plus website and the applicable federal laws; the university says that question is "composed of ordinary words with everyday meanings, and it makes no reference to any term or definition appearing in any other publication. In The New Yorker article, one teacher had written: She showed up at my classroom door with a bloodied and battered face and then fainted., RG: And then, Rachel Aviv, the reporter also quotes Sherry McClain, who was a nurse who was assigned to you, she said: She had two black eyes, and her hair was full of blood. But when you're filling out a box where it's "yes" or "no" and there's no more information or "kind of!" [2], Morrison's lawyer questioned Fierceton closely about apparent differences between her medical records from the hospital and her description of her injuries in a scholarship application essay the lawyer had obtained, and other details from the latter, such as the "metallic" taste of a feeding tube that was plastic and her claim that she was unable to recognize her own facial features in the hospital mirror, when her medical records showed that her injuries were well short of being even temporarily disfiguring. MF: Yeah, it was, things like that where I simplified all of these foster kids that youre living with a biological family who have kids, which I would say are foster siblings. In between those placements, she slept at friends' houses for long periods. The article by reporter Rachel Aviv was called How an Ivy League School Turned Against a Student, and it tells the story of an extraordinary battle between Mackenzie and the University of Pennsylvania. She thought that he had been very quickly removed from the building. [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. She recalled showing up at the foster home with her new clothes in a plastic bag, feeling "like a passenger in my own body", she recalled later. And so I was like, of course, Im going to respond again. She had lived with her mother since her parents divorced acrimoniously during her childhood, and a guardian ad litem was appointed to represent Fierceton's interests in the proceeding, during which abuse allegations were made. MF: And that is, I felt very defeated too. [1]:64, In February 2015, before presenting the evidence against Morrison to a grand jury for an indictment, the St. Louis County district attorney's office dropped all the charges against Morrison over Brandt's objections. Is that your experience with it as well? So I felt pretty confident. RG: or in graduate school. And then I remembered that my teacher had told me to write a gratitude list. "[2], When Fierceton returned to the St. Louis area on vacations and breaks, she stayed with friends. 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. And I havent been on any of the Penn websites. And so can you talk a little bit about your research? "Fuck thatI don't have [a family]" she said later. You know, I believe the first people who said that was the Rhodes Trust. Morrison had told the admitting physician that she had not been present when her daughter was hurt but believed she had fallen down the stairs in the house, which the hospital accepted as the likely cause, even though her fearfulness was also noted. Beth Winkelstein, at the time Penn's deputy provost, signed off on her application for the school, writing that "Mackenzie understands what it is like to be an at-risk youth, and she is determined to re-make the systems that block rather than facilitate success. 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. [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. 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. This definition resembles the one used in the federal Higher Education Act, which says that first-generation status depends on the education level of a parent whom a student regularly resided with and received support from.. She lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital, where she spent three days in intensive care. And thats an unfortunate reality so many survivors experience, not having a lot of documentation. RG: 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. And Im curious where you would pinpoint it, but I would guess that its The Philadelphia Inquirer story that started with an incorrect lead that said: Mackenzie Fierston grew up poor, something very close to that? Fierceton earned her bachelor's degree in political science from the College of Arts & Sciences and is . Raised in Chesterfield, Missouri, a West County suburb of St. Louis, she attended and graduated from the Whitfield School in Creve Coeur. And, honestly, first-generation is never something Ive really identified with fully. I was in this private school with a lot of upper-middle class or wealthy white students. I cant remember if it was in the Rhodes essay or in another essay that, in hindsight, you wouldve tightened up. I think they do have a richer experience if they have more diversity around them, but that is more the point. When she was a teenager, she showed up bloodied and bruised at her elite private school. First of all, thats one box? Jay Caspian Kang sounded similar themes in two different New York Times newsletters discussing Fierceton's story. MF: So [laughs] I feel like I could go on for hours about that. And eventually they filed a big wrongful death lawsuit in August 2020. Fierceton says she had not failed any tests; her Whitfield transcript shows she got a B+ in the class. "[4][2], Winkelstein followed up with a letter to Elizabeth Kiss, the trust's CEO, alerting her that the university had been investigating Fierceton's story, found it to have seriously diverged from the reality of her life, with the abuse allegations quite possibly fabricated. And so, just the immediate reaction was like: Theres no way. And eventually they filed a big wrongful death lawsuit in August 2020. So I could imagine why at some point youd be like, you know what, Im just not going to keep taking Ls here. And: Did you report what was going on to your school? 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 had had a fairly upper middle class life yet was working at multiple fast food restaurants and barely getting by. And thats again, like not because there isnt abuse or neglect going on in families that looked like mine, or biological families that looked like mine. 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. RG: So how is a person who is filling out this application supposed to know what definition youre supposed to use? Nor is she obligated to meet their expectations of her. Shes lying, shes a spoiled brat, this, that, and the other which looking back at the time I just felt absolutely horrible. And back in high school, it was a similar thing. And that dynamic, I would say, [laughs] probably played a big part in all of this. This is derived from language in the federal Higher Education Act, which ties first-generation status to the educational attainment of the parent the student "regularly resides with and receives support from". Like there is more attention to systemic poverty and trying to keep children in their homes to begin with, I would say, which is important, because if you can keep kids in their homes, then theyre not in the system and facing that foster-to-prison pipeline. [24], In a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, the university said the New Yorker article "did not accurately reflect" the university's investigation of the issues raised by the Rhodes Trust. "We would never have believed any of it if we weren't living it." Yeah. And youre getting instruction from a university official that that's how you're supposed to fill it out, that's what the definition says online. Like, I dont have the precise statistics in front of me, but if you asked people to guess at the number of people who will experience, say, two years of poverty in their life, people will miss it by magnitudes. ", When Penn's Office of Student Conduct confronted Fierceton with the discrepancy between her statement on two of her applications that she ", The exact definition of FGLI relevant to forms Fierceton filled out is a key point in the Rhodes Trust and Penn investigations of her. Fierceton considered dropping out, but "if I truly can't do this, where am I supposed to return to? Im curious, having dealt with so many people along the way, who are questioning your story, how do you feel like the boxes play into this? The Inquirer story came out in November 2020. Fierceton believes it was likely sent by Morrison or one of her close relatives. But I guess I cant say for sure. [2], Morrison retained William Margulis, a former member of Whitfield's board who had sent four of his children there, including one of her daughter's classmates, as her attorney. RG: Like, those two things dont fit together. Yeah. In November 2020, Mackenzie Fierceton was one of just 32 students to be awarded the Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford. She also called herself a first-generation low-income student. MF: And its mentioned briefly. And they released this quote-unquote report in April of 2021 with their findings. I think its a reflection of the systemic prejudices . And like you said, like, yes, obviously I was looking in a mirror, and I knew I was looking in a mirror. So those questions really came later. Yeah, so Penn First for the whole FGLI community. We started building this, and this is exactly who we built it for. That is when I would trace it back to. Consider what the world of media would look like without The Intercept. RG: Who will spend some significant amount of time in poverty. The wellness director told her she would have to notify the state's Department of Social Services (DSS) of the incident. And when will you have finished up your Ph.D.? And with that, like you said, notion of: Well, theres no way that you went to private school and all of this could have still happened, or that you could be low-income now and this idea that socioeconomic status is permanent. 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. One trigger for the beatings was sexual abuse by one of her mother's boyfriends, Henry Lovelace, Jr., a fitness trainer and multiple winner of the Missouri's Strongest Man competition in his weight class, which her mother warned her never to talk about. RG: And so if its a well-educated white girl from a private school, thats way too close to home for a lot of these elites. [3], After the interview White emailed Morrison about how it went; she wrote back regretting that Fierceton continued to tell the same story. Yes, it may be true that institutions like UPenn give students like Fierceton opportunities because of their story, but that does not mean her narrative is theirs for the taking. Right. or in graduate school. Now Im sobbing, Im hyperventilating, and the staff member interrupted and said: Can we have an estimate of how much time is left? [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. 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. RG: Thats been my understanding of it. [2], DSS kept Morrison on its child-abuser registry, as it still believed the allegations to be founded, and a petition to its Child Abuse and Neglect Review Board to have her removed was denied. 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. She was . My life is over, Im in the hospital, Im at rock bottom. Which as Im sure youve learned since is a complete and fundamental misunderstanding of poverty . 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 did they say anything along those lines? So therefore that doesnt fit their understanding of low-income, despite the fact that your mother was no longer your legal guardian, youre a ward of the state. [Laughs.]. So I was like: OK, fine. MF: Yeah. So I started while I was an undergrad and was taking classes at the same time. 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In different stages of healing an obvious sign of child abuse father, Billy Terrell, laughs... That he had been an actor in soap operas or in another essay that, in,. The first people who said that was the Rhodes essay or in another essay that, hindsight! That there had been very quickly removed from the building likely sent by Morrison one. That he had been very quickly removed from the College of Arts & amp ; Sciences and.. 1 ] had been a very similar delay in his care, but even worse dynamics have... This was ridiculous, and this is exactly who we built it.! That is when I would say, [ laughs ] probably played a big part in all this... With fully class life yet was working at multiple fast food restaurants and barely getting by incident... And back in high school, it 's like you have finished your... Is never something Ive really identified with fully out at you after having read back over that?... As Im sure youve learned since is a complete and fundamental misunderstanding poverty! Of course, Im at rock bottom had not failed any tests ; her Whitfield shows... Is when I would trace it back to not failed any tests ; her Whitfield transcript shows she a.
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