Hot Pocket heiress in hot seat after bribery conviction

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PHOTO BY AMIRAH AMENHOTEP

Mommy and daddy’s is turning to the go-to solution for rich children to score spots at prestigious universities; Bribery

Back in 2019 Yale soccer coach Rudy Meredith was caught in a $1.2 million bribery scandal through parents who wanted their little girl to shine big. In the same year, Stanford University’s sailing coach John Vandemoer was involved in a $270,000 bribery scandal.

The biggest college admission scandal to date,Operation Varsity Blues, also happened in 2019. In it, two of Hollywood’s biggest leading women, Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman were caught with more than  33  other parents trying to get their kids into top-notch universities. 

In total, $25 million were used to bribe coaches and admissions offices into letting students who clearly didn’t deserve to be there if mommy and daddy could pay for their GPA or make them appear higher on applications, or getting their names on an athletic roster. 

In 2020, we see our first, high profile college-admissions scandal involving the Hot Pocket Heiress. 

Michelle Janavs was meant to be the next “Hot Pocket” queen, but instead her throne will be in a jail cell for five months because she managed to bribe her two daughters into, yet again, a prestigious university with $300,000. 

It seems like all you need is a swipe of a credit card, and create a very convincing application to be one of USC’s all-star players.

As a college student, I see this as a slap in the face. I am sitting in classrooms, studying hard and earning my spot into my dream college like everyone around me. 

Why didn’t I think about paying my way into my dream college? Wait, you have to be rich and entitled to be able to persuade the people in these universities to let you in. 

We are seeing that hard work is no longer needed to walk the campus as a student, just a set of millionaire parents. Looking at this from a different angle, this shows that the justice system and prosecutors are finally doing their job  right, by catching and slapping the wrists of these millionaire parents.

“People who pay take advantage of it. They have the opportunity to do it right,” said Delta College student Yisell Garcia. 

If these families have enough money to pay hundreds and thousands of dollars to get their kids into university, then they have enough money to pay for top of the line tutors to get them in the right way. 

“It’s like people with financial aid. You see them buying new iPhones and Airpods and not actually using it what it’s meant for,” Garcia said. 

We see this trend where money is being used to find the easy way out instead of helping the situation become better, it’s happening everyday and even in our everyday lives. We are supposed to trust these adults in these universities to accept those who rightfully deserve admission in. High School students across the globe work towards one goal: getting accepted into their dream college. 

For many students, they happily get that acceptance letter in the mail, but someone gets their spots on the rowing team taken. The once hard working, straight- A student is let down by a system that was supposed to lead them to a wealthy and successful future; college admissions.

The fact that these scandals are coming to light shows the system is still working the right way.  Revenge is best served like a hot pocket: steaming hot then surprisingly cold.