by Gibson's Bakery. Of the 40 adults arrested for shoplifting from the bakery in a five-year period, only six were black. As a part of the three students' guilty plea in August 2017, each read a statement saying, "I believe the employees of Gibson’s actions were not racially motivated. They were merely trying to prevent an underage sale." Reporters obtained an email written by Emily Crawford, an employee for the school's communications department, telling her bosses that she found the protests "very disturbing". "I have talked to 15 townie friends who are poc [persons of color] and they're disgusted and embarrassed by the protest. In their view, the kid was breaking the law, period.... To them this is not a race issue at all." During the trial, Eddie Holoway, a black man who worked his way through technical college while working at Gibson’s Bakery, testified that the racist allegations against his former employer were untrue. "In my life, I have been a marginalized person, so I know what it feels like to be called something that you know you’re not. I could feel his pain. I knew where he was coming from." Clarence "Trey" James, a black man employed at Gibson's since 2013, testified that he had observed no racist treatment of customers or employees. "Never, not even a hint. Zero reason to believe, zero evidence of that." Trey also told the student-run Oberlin Review, "When you steal from the store, it doesn't matter what color you are. You can be purple, blue, green; if you steal, you get caught, you get arrested." During the trial, the defense said that the lawsuit was an attempt by the bakery to "profit from a divisive and polarizing event." Oberlin argued that purchasing food and gloves for protesters was not an endorsement of the protests. It also argued that the two-month suspension of Gibson's dining hall agreement was an attempt to de-escalate the protests, but Gibson's replied that students interpreted the decision as the school taking the side against the bakery, inflaming the protests instead. Oberlin also argued that any statements that may have been made about the Gibsons being racist or having a history of racial profiling were opinions and could not be libelous. Verdict and responses In June 2019, the jury found in favor of the Gibson family, awarding $11 million in compensatory damages, before further hearings on punitive damages and