Instructor apologizes for remarks on soldier
Says she’s sadly familiar with military harassment
A retired Wisconsin Air National Guard colonel and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee instructor says her social media posting about a slain female soldier’s sexual harassment allegation was taken out of context.
One day after Betsy Schoeller was sharply criticized for her Facebook comments about Spc. Vanessa Guillen, the retired colonel released a statement through UWM saying she offered her sympathy to all victims of sexual assault and harassment.
Her words Sunday were far different from what she wrote on a private Facebook page for veterans called Veteran Humor.
“You guys are kidding, right? Sexual harassment is the price of admission for women into the good ole boy club. If you’re gonna cry like a snowflake about it, you’re gonna pay the price,” Schoeller wrote in response to a posting from someone asking how and why Guillen’s death happened.
Schoeller said Sunday in her statement that she did not mean to imply that this is how she feels.
“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.”
Schoeller is a senior lecturer at UWM’s School of Information Studies where she earned a bachelor’s degree, master of library science and information and Ph.D. On Saturday UWM released a statement via Twitter saying
the school does not condone Schoeller’s remarks but could not regulate the private speech of employees.
Among Wisconsin campuses, UWM has the largest number of students who are veterans, including many post 9/11 military members earning degrees through the G.I. Bill.
By 2:30 p.m. Sunday, more than 117,000 people had signed a change.org petition started on Friday by a UWM student, calling for Schoeller to be fired from her UWM job.
In a phone interview Sunday night with the Journal Sentinel, Schoeller said she feels terrible that her words were misconstrued.
“I take full responsibility for what I wrote, but my intent was never to point fingers or call names. I wasn’t pointing to any specific person. I was responding to why did this happen, how did this happen. Because we still live in a culture of sexual harassment,” she said.
She has taught at UWM 23 years and spent 23 years serving in the Air Force, Air Force Reserves and Air National Guard before retiring in 2017 as a colonel in the Wisconsin Air National Guard’s 128th Air Refueling Wing based at Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport.
Schoeller said she was sexually harassed while serving in the military.
“I have not experienced the type of sexual assault that so many women have but I have experienced sexual harassment in the military. I have been in positions both in the military and UWM to support women who have been sexually assaulted and sexually harassed.”
National Guard officials did not respond to queries on Sunday about Schoeller’s military background. But the Guard said on its Facebook page Saturday that her comments were “tasteless and insensitive.”
In her statement released Sunday, Schoeller said she was “shocked and saddened” her Facebook post was “interpreted out of context.” She said she has seen the toll sexual harassment takes on individuals and entire military units.
Guillen, 20, was last seen on April 22 in the parking lot of her barracks at Fort Hood in Texas, the largest active duty U.S. military base in the world. Her family said before she disappeared she told them she was being sexually harassed by one of her sergeants at Fort Hood.
Last week shortly after remains believed to be Guillen’s were found near Fort Hood, a soldier who was a co-worker of Guillen committed suicide when police confronted him.