Accusations against Baylor withdrawn

We received a letter from the student apologizing and taking responsibility for this situation. If this is true, then I personally apologize to the folks at Baylor. We have never had someone report a situation like this that has not been true. This is the first time someone has reported something and then taken it back. I hope this doesn't reflect negatively on the efforts of NRADO and the other groups that were involved in this.

See the letter from the student below along with my response.

"I am Joy Fattori-Hudson. My email was posted without my knowledge. I was naive about that. I can understand Dr. Hancock's reaction. I did not intend for it (not me) to accuse Dr. Paul Sands of academic misdemeanor . . . he did not grade my paper and that was the issue.

It was that one single action of not grading it that lead to all kind of conlusions being drawn (both myself and Dr. Hancock). I changed it and ommited most of the Romani References; but I feel he never intentionally meant to be hurtful to anyone or any peoples.

I did not know until Paul sent me the internet addresses where it had been discussed out there and in what format. In fact it had been discussed without my knowledge. There have been too many mistakes made and I am not arrogant enough to think I was not in some kind of error on this matter. So I apologise to Paul and to Baylor and my beloved Truett for any such upset caused. I also apologise to the Romani community for involving them in this situation which I had not intended.

But, I would ask that the Romany Holocaust not be ignored or hidden . . . it is too important. My grandmother and mother were Romanichals and I am one quarter Romani. If Hitler had made it to Britain I would not be alive today! I love my heritage it makes me brave and strong . . . but also tempered in compassion.

So let us all out there let go of this and accept that mistakes were made all around and that there was no intentionality for any of this to happen. Paul Sands is a fine teacher and I am sure will learn some valuable lessons as will I from this issue.

It is New Years Eve

Let 2010 be a year we all learn how to be more sensitive, more compassionate and more accepting of the differences. I will go ahead and modify the paper and get it published for all to enjoy and I am sure it will further the Romani Holocaust situation in doing so. I feel this will be both pleasing to Dr. Hancock, to my Romani roots, yet also pleasing to Dr. Sands and the Baylor community.

Let everyone have a blessed and joyous 2010."

my response:

Dear Joy,
If this is true and you exaggerated this situation which is what I get from this, I hope you know how much trouble this caused and time that was wasted. Do you realize that? We are quick to support those who ask for it and we have never to date had to worry about being wrong and having someone come back and say, "sorry never mind it was my fault". We have never falsely accused someone of what we accused those at Baylor of doing because in most cases when people come to us it is true. This just looked bad for everyone!In the future before you make these kinds of accusations again, I would seriously think about it. Otherwise you are doing exactly the opposite of supporting our efforts as you are taking us away from real issues that deserve our support.