In 2013, Déjah Welsh was a sophomore at UWM. Like many students, she was facing mental health struggles. One afternoon during a mental health crisis, she returned to her friend’s dorm without checking into the front desk properly. Multiple UWM police officers, several without badges, were called on her and attacked her even though it was clear she was in crisis. They nearly suffocated her to death. When she said she couldn’t breathe and didn’t want to end up like Derek Williams, a Milwaukee man who suffocated to death in the back of a MPD squad car in 2011, they finally stopped and put her in a mental health facility.

Even though this was extremely traumatic, Welsh wanted to continue at UWM. When she tried to enroll for classes, UWM gave her the run around, essentially barring her from returning as a student. Today, Welsh is trying to re-enroll at another school, but UWM has not released her transcripts.

To this day, UWM has not in any form acknowledged what happened, and now they are keeping Welsh out of education altogether. Unfortunately, this is not a unique experience for Black students at UWM. In public, UWM claims that they value all students, and that they are doing all they can to protect diversity on campus. Behind closed doors, they choke Black students and then kick them off campus. That’s not right!

We stand with Déjah Welsh! We demand:

• UWM administration and UWM PD publicly apologize to Déjah
• UWM release her transcripts to her
• UWM forgive her student loans from her year at UWM
• UWM provide a scholarship or grant to help her return to school