Retired Oberlin professor Roger Copeland was also critical of the protests, writing a year after the protests began: "It’s embarrassing when one has to ask Oberlin students the same question one asks climate-change deniers: At what point do you accept the empirical evidence, even if that means having to embrace an 'inconvenient' truth? ... The time has come for the Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo, on behalf of the College, to apologize to the Gibson family." Raimondo reacted to Copeland's statement in a private text message: "Fuck him. I'd say unleash the students if I wasn't convinced this needs to be put behind us." Conor Friedersdorf, a writer for The Atlantic, argued that college administrators at Oberlin "calculatingly wield some control over whether student activists are aggressive or restrained". An email from Vice President of Communications Ben Jones read, "All these idiots complaining about the college hurting a 'small local business' are conveniently leaving out their massive (relative to the town) conglomerate and price gouging on rents and parking and the predatory behavior toward most other local business. Fuck 'em." Lawsuit and trial Civil complaint In November 2017, Gibson's Bakery filed a civil complaint against Oberlin for libel, slander, interference with business relationships, and interference with contracts in the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas. Gibson's argued that the college supported the protests that damaged its reputation and that the college unlawfully broke its contract with the bakery. In the complaint, the Gibson family alleged that some Oberlin College professors attended the demonstrations, joined in the chants with a bullhorn, and gave course credit to students who skipped class to attend the demonstrations. It also claimed Oberlin employees distributed boycott flyers and allowed them to be photocopied for free on school machines. Trial evidence Oberlin dean of students Meredith Raimondo joined the protestors along with other college officials, bringing the students pizza, authorizing the purchase of winter gloves for students protesting in cold weather, and helping to pass out flyers urging passersby to boycott Gibson's. Jason Hawk, a reporter and editor with the Oberlin News-Tribune, testified that Raimondo blocked him repeatedly from photographing the protest, telling him that he did not have a right to photograph the student protestors and handing him a flyer that read "This is a RACIST establishment with a LONG ACCOUNT of RACIAL PROFILING and DISCRIMINATION." Local police records showed no previous accusations of racial profiling