Second Statement—from John G. Stackhouse, Jr. & His Wife, on Crandall

Originally published on old blog December 11, 2023

UPDATE: February 28, 2024: Dr. John G. Stackhouse, Jr. and Sarah-Jane, represented by legal counsel, have filed an updated statement of claim against Crandall University for wrongful termination and bad faith conduct, and joint claims for breaches of privacy, breach of confidence, and defamation.

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Friends (and others) have noticed I have been experiencing some heavy weather of late. My wife and I hope to have much more to communicate before long. But here’s the most recent update.

This attack on me is bad enough. But a few noisy people have also taken to trading online rumours about my wife and our marriage.

These people clearly know nothing more than one or two factoids about Sarah-Jane or our relationship. But they have busily constructed abusive narratives that have combined toxically with other rumours to produce a damning frame of reference. In fact, a few people at Crandall University indulged themselves in the same sort of gossip about a year ago, thus providing a darkly biased context in which the current fiasco took root.

We have lived under the Damoclean sword of this investigation for more than eight excruciating months. We trusted that Crandall University and its investigator would follow due process, come to the truth, and pay careful attention to whatever valid concerns would be raised. Instead, they have not just capitulated to, but actually cooperated with, a few individuals who had their own unrelated axes to grind against me.

So now we have this mess.

We dispute the basis, methodology, process, and resulting conclusions of the workplace investigation, and the subsequent report. Furthermore, we dispute the accuracy of the representation of my responses in said report. We are exploring and taking the necessary steps to remedy the situation—including, but not limited to, legal action against the responsible parties.

We are suing Crandall University for how they’ve handled this situation from start to finish.

We are pursuing legal remedies against media who have made an already bad situation much worse.

And we are investigating the involvement of at least three bad actors who have abetted this disaster to advance personal vendettas against me.

Thanks from us both to the many friends and family members who have supported us through this difficult year, and particularly to those who have so graciously reached out since this recent storm erupted online.

We'll have more to say soon. And thanks in advance for sharing this as you can to mitigate the awful damage done.