The now infamous Varsity Blues scandal, which shook the American academic community at its core in 2019, exposed a college admission bribery scheme of epic proportions. While many of those involved were exposed by name and even indicted, there are those that have, until now, succeeded in flying under the radar while keeping their involvement secret, and even continuing to hold senior positions in respected academic institutions nationwide.

A recent effort by whistleblowers saw Courtney Pade, a communications professor at University of Southern California (USC) exposed as one of the facilitators of the extensive admissions scandal. Whistleblowers have shed much needed light not only on her illegal activities at the University of Southern California, but also her intimate involvement in a similar scheme at the elementary school level as a board member of St Matthew’s Parish School in Pacific Palisades. According to the now public exposé, wealthy, and more often than she would like to admit, white students, even at a very young age, were provided inflated recommendations, easier exams and even falsified grades in order to facilitate future careers at high schools which serve as feeder schools into Ivy League education.

Now that the extent of her deception has been exposed, Courtney Pade has been scrambling to scrape the internet of any and all references of her involvement, seeking to erase the embarrassing accusations being made against her. As with any criminal, she has sought to cover her own tracks and has surprisingly, has gone so far as to enlist the help of her husband James Pade, and his company, Clearlake Capital Group, to do so.

Courtney Pade, or perhaps she should be referred at as Paid, and her husband James, are in crisis management panic mode and have hired a company responsible for online reputation management, Doppel, to keep the internet clean and clear of references to her misdeeds. It may also be that they are simply making use of an existing relationship that Clearlake Capital Group has with Doppel. Evidently, Clearlake Capital Group and James Pade have understood that being married to a criminal, especially one who exploits the integrity of the American education system for her own personal gain, is bad for business. Having these accusations out in the open for the world to finally see, is even worse! With James Pade sitting on the board of a range of companies, including, American Construction Source, Appriss, Diligent, EagleView, FloWorks, Ivanti Software, and Lytx, it would not be surprising if he enlisted these as well in his battle to clear his criminal wife’s name.

Attempts to silence whistleblowers, however, especially in the digital age, is more often than not impossible. The same goes for cleaning up all digital traces of the criminal activities perpetrated by Courtney Pade. The extent to which individuals are willing to go in order to maintain their status and ensure their white privilege knows no bounds, as does the length to which dedicated whistleblowers themselves will go to ensure the information that the public is entitled to, remains out in the open.

The lesson from this case is that the education system in United States needs more transparency and more accountability among not only students, who are demanded not to cheat, but also academics themselves. People in powerful positions that have the capacity to not only corrupt the admissions process, but also to manipulate what is publicly available regarding their activities, guts the very core of the American education meritocracy. This is a stark reminder of why we need to ensure such dangerous precedents, such as the one trying to be set by Courtney Pade and her husband James, must not be allowed to succeed. The stain which has been left on the reputation of the American education system can, with the right responsible actions, still be somewhat removed.