And, honestly, first-generation is never something Ive really identified with fully. And eventually they filed a big wrongful death lawsuit in August 2020. According to Fierceton, her mother pushed her down the stairs and then beat her extensively at the bottom. Fierceton began secretly documenting physical and psychological abuse by her mother, a radiologist, during her high school years. Fierceton had apparently made much of her status as a 'first generation, low income' student, an abuse survivor who aged out of foster care. And I kind of felt like things were resolved until the next week when there was more [laughs] more downhill event. Photograph by Robbie Lawrence for The New Yorker Mackenzie Fierceton grew up in a middle-class suburb of St. Louis. "It is seven years later, and I am still having to prove and prove and prove what has happened to me." And because poverty and abuse are so pervasive in society and particularly in a country that has such a minimal social safety net and has so much violence. Is that what sent you into a surreal state? What happened the night you ended up in foster care? 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. In the transcript, I wrote it was really just focused on: What happened the night you went into foster care? The teen said she was sent to. Like, it seemed like an airtight case from my perspective. Its virtually almost an unknown phenomena or to people who are working in the field, its certainly known, but theres been very little research on it, which partially complicates my Ph.D., because theres so little to draw upon. Given the pandemic, Rhodes Scholar judges interviewed candidates over Zoom. And I think its true. But part of it is funding decisions. MF: So [laughs] I feel like I could go on for hours about that. She, to my knowledge, has stuck by that. Her account was not completely inaccurateshe described as a foster child one sibling of hers who was actually the biological child of her foster parents, for instance, which she attributed later to not having developed her essay at length. Mackenzie is the soap's first transgender character, added to the series after Stone wrote to executive producer Jason Herbison to pitch the character. 24-year-old Mackenzie Fierceton won the Rhodes scholarship in November 2020, but a tip-off to the prestigious committee kicked off a deeper investigation into the student's background. Why would I do that? 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. So they heard from her and immediately they call you into a meeting with the deputy provost at the time, Beth Winkelstein . And please go and leave us a rating or a review it helps people find the show. Fierceton applied for the Rhodes Scholarship with assistance from Penn's Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships. on about your day, ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadnt done it? This could happen to me. 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. Penn student and Rhodes Scholarship recipient Mackenzie Fierceton filed a lawsuit against the University following its investigation into allegations that questioned her status as a first-generation, low-income student and survivor of abuse.. Fierceton clarified the details in question and Ruderman said she understood better. 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. Like one of them was describing a biological child in a house as another foster child, and something about a half-brother or something.What were those and how were those errors kind of deployed against you? RG: Right. And its funny, cause it just made me so frustrated and I actually went back and read it. Who are your biological family? "[2], Near the end of November Fierceton was named one of 32 Rhodes scholars from the U.S. for the year. Its a very different lifestyle. How much research has been done on the foster-care-to-prison-pipeline? A University of Pennsylvania May graduate who is currently completing her master's degree at Penn has been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship for graduate study at the University of Oxford.. Penn's 2021 Rhodes Scholar is Mackenzie Fierceton from St. Louis, currently residing in Philadelphia. 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? Teen Mom alum Mackenzie Edwards' husband Ryan Edwards is to be arrested soon. And we cant acknowledge that, so we then have to pick apart the other pieces of it, and say that well this, this just cant be real. So, yes, an article came out in the local paper saying that she had been arrested. She found Fierceton's diary at the house and read it, then interviewed teachers and administrators at Whitfield, learning of Morrison's insulting texts to Fierceton. So I felt pretty confident. And did you find this after The New Yorker article was published? Fierceton clarified her identity during the interview:[4]. My understanding is there were two anonymous emails. That was my personal statement. 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. Attached were copies of the Missouri court orders expunging Morrison's arrest and removing her name from the DSS registry. 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. And then to be so unanimously disbelieved and, at that point, this article was like a paragraph and a half. "[2], In December, an anonymous 22-page letter was sent to the U.S. office of the Rhodes Trust, which administers the scholarship program. RG: Yeah. Right. Anything interesting in that that you noticed? 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. 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 still, it was just like: Nope. And eventually they filed a big wrongful death lawsuit in August 2020. So, I myself, had a seizure in the basement of my grad school in January, 2020, and it took over an hour to get me out of the basement because they couldnt fit a stretcher or a backboard down the stairs or the elevator. In addition it offered details of what its own investigation had concluded about Fierceton's childhood and adolescence that led OSC to believe it was likely that she had exaggerated or fabricated outright her claims about her mother. But she says she occasionally received packages at her dorm room containing objects she suspected had come from her mother, such as a bracelet with an inscription about finding the truth, or others close to her, such as a pair of sneakers, which she believed Lovelace, who had sometimes helped her stretch before workouts, had sent. But that was definitely a driving force for why I decided, ultimately, to withdraw because I felt like: OK, federal prison is no joke. MF: Yeah. RG: Anything in particular jump out at you after having read back over that transcript? You didnt grow up in crumbling projects your entire life. [2] The psychologist testified that she had seen both mother and daughter during 2007 and 2008. In the transcript, I wrote it was really just focused on: What happened the night you went into foster care? And we have this idea of what a person looks like who commits a crime or who gets arrested for child abuse. And the chain of events that happened leading into foster care? . Mackenzie Fierceton grew up poor, cycling through the rocky child welfare system. 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. [f] Fierceton felt no ambivalence about her answer. [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. I think youre right. And so I wanted to start with where things really started to unravel for you. [23] In mid-April, Penn released Fierceton's master's degree. Yes. So normally the term FGLI, its just an umbrella term for both. 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. And so, yes, if the student, then, is no longer useful, I could imagine it turning. And so the fact that shes continued pursuing you to me kind of demonstrates the entire case. What kind of a group is that? I cant remember if it was in the Rhodes essay or in another essay that, in hindsight, you wouldve tightened up. 2020 College graduate Mackenzie Fierceton (Photo from Mackenzie Fierceton). That evening that the article came out is when I got a call from the reporter saying: I got this anonymous email that said X, Y, Z, and I wanted to let you know. "[2], When Fierceton returned to the St. Louis area on vacations and breaks, she stayed with friends. If you want to give us additional feedback, email us at [emailprotected] Thanks so much! Her mentor told Licht afterwards that "it felt like an attack on a student" and that she had never experienced anything like it. [Laughs.]. After the trial ended with Morrison prevailing and the agency ordered to remove her name from the child-abuse registry, Fierceton resolved to change her last name. And in the U.S., there is much more pressure to pull kids out of homes, right? 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. And then theres also foster siblings in the sense of other people who are in the foster care system who youre living with. As a result she withdrew from the Rhodes Scholarship; a sympathetic Penn faculty member has paid her Oxford tuition in its stead.[2]. What happened after you went out of the hospital? 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. I think this is a conversation not necessarily for people who are still in question about what happened here. How old were you when you were applying to college? But that was definitely a driving force for why I decided, ultimately, to withdraw because I felt like: OK, federal prison is no joke. Like one of them was describing a biological child in a house as another foster child, and something about a half-brother or something.What were those and how were those errors kind of deployed against you? I n November 2020, University of Pennsylvania graduate student Mackenzie Fierceton, 24, won the Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University. Fierceton believes it was likely sent by Morrison or one of her close relatives. I have all these three kinds of different rationale and corroborations. And I ended up reading the comments, and the comments were just horrendous. Right. And all of us, no matter what our situation, are not completely safe from it. [1]:95, Judge Kristine Allen Kerr ultimately held for Morrison. 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. She had seen no signs of abuse in the relationship and considered Fierceton to be the dominant personality in it. You didnt grow up in crumbling projects your entire life. And Im kind of one of the lucky ones where I had really expansive and thorough documentation for all the parts of this story. And that feels like one of them where it feels like the system is willfully misunderstanding reality in order to bend it in their direction. [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. 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. And when I asked her again when I was gathering all this evidence in 2020, she gave me the same answer of: I dont believe its relevant, and this box isnt relevant to admission. Hindsight, you wouldve tightened up what happened after you went out of the Missouri court orders expunging Morrison arrest... Us, no matter what our situation, are not completely safe it. In the transcript, I could go on for hours about that Fierceton. The time, Beth Winkelstein, University of Pennsylvania graduate student Mackenzie grew. Deputy provost at the time, Beth Winkelstein for Morrison November 2020 University... 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