In the early 1990s, an orphan known as Gina G. was admitted to Harvard. Then one day Harvard received a packet of newspaper clippings reporting that Gina G. had killed her mother.
Follow-up research indicated that a teenage Gina G. had indeed served time for matricide. Harvard promptly had her admission rescinded. This was a controversial decision, to say the least. By law, a juvenile's name is not supposed to be disclosed or published. That, however, didn't bother a self-righteous sheriff who made Gina G. known to the press anyway. An investigation by the New Yorker magazine revealed that Gina G. had been chronically and severely abused by her alcoholic mother who was herself a victim of child abuse.* Harvard didn't change its mind, however, on the ground that Gina G. had failed to tell the truth when asked about her late mother during her admission interview. In response, Gina G. and her defenders argued that Harvard was asking too much of a brutally abused teenage victim who had fought back just to stay alive. To bring up her matricide case was to have her hellish past relived. To be fair, she had already undergone rehabilitation during detention per the court's order. So, why shouldn't she deserve a chance to start afresh?Gina G. ended up being accepted by Tufts University which was informed of what Harvard had learned about her.Author: renqiulan * "Rejecting Gina" by Jane Mayer, The New Yorker (May 28, 1995)
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