PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: Local Bakers Sue Oberlin for Libel, Slander: Bakers were accused of racial bias for prosecuting three shoplifters, one of whom is white.

Oberlin College and its vice president have been accused of libel and slander by a local bakery, the owners of which allege in a suit that administrators supported students in an unfounded campaign to paint the establishment’s owners as racist.

The suit against the college and Meredith Raimondo, who is also dean of students, was filed on Nov. 7 in Lorain County Common Pleas Court on behalf of Gibson Bros. Inc., and owners David and Allyn Gibson, the Morning Journal reported.

The complaint comes a year after Oberlin College students held a massive protest in front of Gibson’s Food Mart and Bakery, in response to three of their peers being arrested and charged with shoplifting.

University administrators are insufficiently accountable for the student protests they often deliberately gin up.

Plus, a dirty motive for Oberlin:

Oberlin College has an interest in seeing the bakery fail, as it seeks to take control of a parking lot adjacent to the bakery and owned by a company in which David Gibson holds the controlling interest, the Journal reported.

The suit’s charges against Oberlin and Raimondo include “tortious interference with business relationships, tortious interference with contracts, deceptive trade practices, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent hiring retention and supervision and trespass,” according to the report.

The Gibsons are seeking over $50,000.

Need to add a zero or two.