Former HUD Secretary and United States Congresswoman Marcia Fudge on Friday afternoon notified the Shaker Height school district that she would withdraw as speaker for the high school's commencement on June 5. The Shakerite, the school's student-run newspaper, first reported the news.
The decision followed a petition from students who opposed Fudge's previous support of Lance Mason, who murdered beloved Shaker Heights teacher Aisha FraserFormer HUD Secretary and United States Congresswoman Marcia Fudge on Friday afternoon notified the Shaker Height school district that she would withdraw as speaker for the high school's commencement on June 5.
In her letter to a judge, Fudge wrote that he was a"good man who made a very bad mistake and “Lance accepts full responsibility for his actions and has assured me that something like this will never happen again. While Fudge condemned the murder —"My support of Lance Mason was based on the person I knew for almost 30 years," she said in a statement in 2018."The person who committed these crimes is not the Lance Mason familiar to me. They were horrific crimes, and I condemn them” — students, Fraser's former colleagues and Shaker families felt that inviting someone who vouched for Mason to speak to Fraser's former students was insensitive.
“I simply think that this district cannot forgive nor forget what she’s done,” Shaker senior Lilith Schmidt told The Shakerite, “and her accomplishments do not outweigh her being complicit.”Vince Grzegorek has been with Scene since 2007 and editor-in-chief since 2012. He previously worked at Discount Drug Mart and Texas Roadhouse.
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