UWM Senior Lecturer and Wisconsin Air National Guard veteran Lt. Col. Betsy Schoeller said she takes responsibility for her comment on Facebook about sexual assault in the military on a post about the gruesome murder of Spc. Vanessa Guillen.
“I take responsibility for what I wrote, but my intent was not to call any names or to lay any blame,” said Schoeller. “My intent was to voice the problem and voice the kinds of things that we hear in a culture of sexual harassment.”
Schoeller said she made the comment on a Facebook page for humor posts specifically for what the page describes as dysfunctional veterans in direct response to someone else’s comment asking questions about how the military could let such a terrible thing happen to Guillen. She said she accidentally posted the comment as a comment on the post rather than an actual reply to the other person’s comment.
She did not realize the page she was posting on was a public page where anyone could read what they were talking about. The page she posted on, internally known as DV6, is part of a group of public and private pages for veterans to share their own distinct brand of humor that helps armed service members cope with the military lifestyle that is so drastically different from civilian lifestyle.
“I thought I was on the private one,” said Schoeller. “Although it was a humorous site, I was not being humorous. I would never have put something like that in public, ever. It was never my intent to be humorous. It was never my intent to be sarcastic.”
Numerous veterans, active service members, students and community members reached out to the UWM Post to cover the rampant culture of sexual abuse in the military they said Schoeller’s comment seemed to rationalize or justify.
Hundreds of women veterans active service members who frequent the same page Schoeller left her original comment on called for an end to the justification of the culture of sexual abuse in the military, which they said Schoeller’s comment did. Schoeller said her original comment was deleted by someone else.
She said she never meant for her words to be taken as a comment on the fact that Guillen was brutally murdered. She was trying to explain why Guillen was murdered and all of the problems with sexual abuse in the military that are so obvious to her.
Her comment was a response to another commenter who couldn’t understand why or how Guillen could have been murdered.
“I read his questions and that’s what drove me to write my comment,” said Schoeller. “In my head, I was saying ‘I know exactly why it happened, because we live in this culture of sexual harassment and that’s exactly why it happened. It was a direct response to him.'”
Schoeller said she tries to help at least some of the veterans who come through her classes at UWM, the largest educator of veterans in the state.
“I’ve always had vets in my classes and they self-identify as vets, and I’ve made myself available to them because I know what the differences are between being in the military world and being in the civilian world,” said Schoeller. “I wanted to be a touchstone for them so that if they needed any guidance or support that they felt like they had somebody who was like-minded.”
Schoeller, a veteran of the military with over a decade of experience, said she tried to edit her original comment when she realized people did not understand what she meant.
“I went back; I wanted to edit it so that I could put in some clarification and I couldn’t even edit,” said Schoeller. “I kept thinking that if people could see that I was responding to the question that he was asking, it was self-evident that it was my own opinion.”
She was trying to explain to the commenter how blatantly obvious it should be to any member of the armed services what lead to the brutal murder of Guillen. She thinks it should be apparent to anyone in the military because it is such a rampant issue.
Schoeller said whatever happens with all of this, she thinks the most important part of this whole story is the fact that sexual assault in the military is finally being brought to light after so many daughters, mothers, sons and fathers have suffered trauma that is truly unimaginable to most people.
“One of the things that’s the most heartbreaking to me, is that I’m not the important part of this story,” said Schoeller. “The important part of this story is the young woman who died. All of this energy could be put into supporting her family and making sure that she’s not forgotten.”
Schoeller said she plans to reach out to the UWM Military and Veterans Resource Center to be even more engaged in helping our veterans and active duty soldiers. She used to regularly be in contact with the center, but the recent events have spurred her to take more action than ever.
She also released a statement on social media that was shared by the university before talking with the UWM Post in an interview.
Schoeller’s statement:
First, may I please offer my sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of Specialist Vanessa Guillen. I am deeply sorry for your loss and pray that you find justice, and over time, some solace and peace.
I’d also like to offer my sympathies to all victims, women and men, of sexual harassment and sexual assault. NO ONE deserves to suffer this violation, under ANY circumstances.
When I was on a private Facebook page for veterans, I saw the article about SPC Guillen’s death and was shocked, horrified, and sickened by the tragic loss of this beautiful woman soldier. It was so brutal and so senseless. Senseless. We all try to make sense of these kinds of events. I continued reading, hoping to find some meaning in what others were writing about the article.
That’s when I saw a posting written by Zach Bigger, who was clearly searching for meaning as well. He was asking questions about ‘how’ this could have happened, and ‘why’. I knew immediately how and why. Because of the continued culture of sexual harassment in the military.
So, I posted a reply to Zach Bigger, “Sexual harassment is the price of admission for women into the good ole boy club. If you’re gonna cry like a snowflake” (or any other demeaning term), “you’re gonna pay the price.” I did not mean to imply that this is how I feel. I was giving voice to the messaging that women hear in the culture of sexual harassment: The message we receive from the culture is not only will you suffer from sexual harassment, if you squawk about it, you will suffer even more. Because it isn’t just the sexual harassment. That’s just the beginning. Then comes the agonizing decision about reporting. Or not reporting. The pressure applied by friends who know about it and only want to help. Having to ultimately stand up to that culture of sexual harassment on your own. Adding suffering on top of suffering. Some endure continued harassment and assault, being forced to work with the perpetrator. Sometimes even death. The sexual harassment culture is still here. That’s the ‘why’ I was looking for.
I am shocked and saddened that my original post was interpreted out of context.
The point I was making is that this is what women are facing in a culture of sexual harassment and misogyny.I
t’s not easy to be a woman in the military. Not easy at all. There are some men who have adapted to the idea of working alongside women, but there are just as many who have not. I’ve seen many attempts to squash this harassment culture from the military. Zero tolerance. Reporting procedures. Trained personnel to help guide victims through the process. Sensitivity training for all personnel. Films. Discussions. Focus groups. Role playing. Sometimes as often as every six months. Always hoping that the next thing will be the one to make a difference. Somehow there was always one more case. Now SPC Guillen was dead. And I knew why. Because the culture of sexual harassment was still alive and well, despite our best efforts.
I do not believe in or support sexual harassment. Quite the opposite. I’ve seen the toll it takes on individuals and entire units. But I know it’s still here. Because SPC Guillen is not here.
Again, I am so sorry my words were misinterpreted. I hope this message provides the context that was missing from my original Facebook posting. Individuals cannot change the system alone. We need to stand together to be strong and to focus our energies on making sure that what happened to SPC Vanessa Guillen doesn’t happen to anyone else ever again.
This university has become a joke.
It is bad enough that UWM converys to current and future students that words have no consequences. But to see them protect this teacher and give her a platform as if they were her lawyer, huh???
Where is Mone? The sound… of silence… Is that leadership? Marquette handled a similar situation in a matter of hours earlier this year.
I hope this comment makes it through… Funny how 1st Amendment Rights applies to a teacher blaming a murder victim but doesn’t extend to the UWM Post.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
This university has devolved tremendously.
It is bad enough that UWM converys to current and future students that words have no consequences. But to see them protect this teacher and give her a platform as if they were her lawyer, huh???
Where is Mone? The sound… of silence… Is that leadership? Marquette handled a similar situation in a matter of hours earlier this year.
I hope this comment makes it through… Funny how 1st Amendment Rights applies to a teacher blaming a murder victim but doesn’t extend to the UWM Post.
Using derogatory terms like “snowflake” and “squawk” underline the true intent: Blame the victim(s). No amount of back pedaling is going to justify ignorance. The students should boycott her classes.
This article is far improved from Adam’s initial article on the matter. It still doesn’t make up for the fact that the first article neglected context and didn’t provide messages *from the original conversation* where Betsy explained exactly what she meant. Good ole boys club? In a disgruntled veterans page? How can you see that as anything but satire, let alone endorsement? Especially when the rest of the conversation explained her perspective. Oh, the comments were taken down at the time you wrote it? Sounds like you don’t have very much information on which to base your narrative — sounds like you don’t have much of a story.
By crafting a narrative lacking context, you essentially painted a fucked up narrative of Betsy that went viral, accompanied by a misleading headline, and I wish you could see all the ways it has damaged her reputation/career/safety. I could understand people doxxing, protesting, and maybe even threatening death upon people within the system who actually believe this — but people who are trying to call it out, in their own dark and twisted way? Surely, an amateur journalist should understand that information exist in a given context, which can change the entire meaning of a message. When sources of information neglect to provide the full story with all the information available, they obscure truth.
Now it appears to people that her apology is a backpedal, so people will continue to see Betsy as an outlet to take care of the entire problem she was trying to call attention to. Pretty fucked up how this whole thing has been twisted away from calling out sexist violence in the military, when Betsy was a victim of the same system.
Adam, I wish you could understand the power that you have in destroying another person’s reputation so easily and carelessly — no further articles can repair that, but we appreciate your effort in trying. Journalists have a LOT of power and responsibility so maybe this can be a learning experience for you, at the expense of another person.