Below please find my How I Resisted Being Publicly Branded a Racist by Yale Deans After The February 24th, 2018 Incident YouTube Channel Videos and Transcripts (Parts I and II). Many persons have requested transcripts of my videos, and I will provide them here, especially the videos of my full, detailed account of what really happened during the now notorious Living or Napping While Black incident at Yale, which was actually a hate crime hoax, and the Yale Administration and the Yale Campus Police were complicit.
Here is the How I Resisted Being Publicly Branded a Racist by Yale Deans After the February 24th, 2018 Incident YouTube Channel Video (Part I): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkK8qqhDxjc
Here is the transcript thereof:
Hi. My name is Sarah Braasch, and I am the PhD Candidate in Philosophy at Yale who was falsely accused of racism, and whose life was destroyed by the Yale Administration, the press, and a global internet rage mob.
In my previous video, I established that I learned from the Yale Housing Director on March 2nd, 2018, that I was being accused of racism, including by a group of Yale Deans, following the February 24thincident, despite the fact that I had been told by the Yale Housing Managers that I had done nothing wrong and not to give the incident another thought.
I wish to make clear that I absolutely believe that the Yale Deans were so eager to publicly brand me a racist, in order to destroy my life and discredit my work, because of the events in the Spring of 2015, during my first year in the PhD Program in Philosophy at Yale. I had been socially ousted from my department by most of my grad student peers for essentially being a civil libertarian, because I stood up for the federal civil rights of a black man, our only POC job candidate for a tenure track position. As I had mentioned in a previous video, I was made aware that the graduate students went to the Yale Administration to try to have me expelled. I believe that the only reason why I was not expelled is because the Philosophy Department faculty stood up for me.
After recovering somewhat from the shock that the smear that I was an egregious racist was “going around” campus, as the Yale Housing Director told me, I decided that I had to take immediate action. I am a licensed human and civil rights attorney and activist who works on the issues of implicit bias and police brutality. This is my career. This is my life. Being publicly branded a racist by the Yale Deans would destroy my life and career and work, including my saving the world project. I believe that the Yale Deans were fully aware of this. I believe that this was their goal.
I first reached out to the Yale Housing Director, the Yale Housing Managers, and the Resident Coordinators, or RC’s, of the Hall of Graduate Studies, via email. I asked that, first and foremost, the 12thfloor common room either be closed entirely or closed to parties for the duration of the academic year. I made it clear that I was very concerned for my safety, as the students involved in the February 24thincident, who had terrorized me in my own home that evening, obviously knew where I lived. When I met with the Yale Housing Managers, immediately after the February 24thincident, they had told me that they would be very happy to simply close the 12thfloor common room for the duration of the academic year. However, this request was denied explicitly and specifically by the Resident Coordinators. A subsequent request was ignored. This made me very concerned, because the Yale Housing Managers had expressed to me their dismay regarding how the RC’s had handled the situation on February 24th. They also told me that they intended to reprimand the RC’s for insinuating that I had done something wrong that evening.
I will go into this in greater detail in another video, but, ultimately, and especially in hindsight, I now believe that the Resident Coordinators of the Hall of Graduate Studies were complicit in my being terrorized in my dorm room for months. I believe that they were working with my attackers. I believe that this was, at least in part, in retaliation against me, because I believe that they felt that they were reprimanded, because of me.
I next expressed my grave concern that my reputation was being maliciously maligned. I asked to see or to be made aware of the contents of the letter that had been addressed to the Grad School Diversity Dean Michelle Nearon. I asked to be told exactly what it was that I was being accused of having done or said that was racist. I said that I was prepared to protect my rights and interests via the civil courts, if need be. I made clear that I was aghast that Yale seemed to be taking the position that a middle aged disabled woman who lives alone in Yale’s on campus housing doesn’t have the right to take reasonable precautions to make sure that she can enter her dorm room safely without having her life, livelihood, and reputation threatened and without being smeared across campus as an egregious racist.
The Yale Housing Director directed me to address my requests and inquiries to Dean Nearon. It seemed clear to me that he no longer wished to discuss the matter with me.
I immediately sent an email with my concerns to Dean Nearon. I told her that I was in a state of extreme distress. I expressed my concerns for my personal safety, as well as my reputation and livelihood. I also stated that I was prepared to pursue defamation litigation, if necessary, but that I had no desire to do so.
Dean Nearon said that she would get back to me the following week.
I decided that it would be a good idea to go ahead and file a police report with the Yale campus police. I filed my report with Officer Grace Schenkle on Friday, March 9th, 2018, exactly a week after I had been told by the Yale Housing Director that I was being accused of racism, including by a group of Yale Deans. I told Officer Schenkle everything that had happened up to that point.
On Friday, March 9th, I was walking across campus when I overheard the conversation of a group of presumed students walking along side me. They were clearly discussing me, though I was not mentioned by name. They mentioned the 12thfloor common room of the Hall of Graduate Studies and a party that took place there. They called me a racist who should be kicked off campus and thrown out of school.
At the time, I didn’t want to think that they knew who I was. At the time, I didn’t want to think that I was being stalked.
But, I now believe this to be the case. This would not be the last such instance.
The following two weeks were spring break. I was grateful for the reprieve from the students.
During the two weeks of spring break, I attempted to resolve the situation with Dean Nearon. I was not successful. I will go into greater detail regarding my correspondence with Dean Nearon in another video. First of all, she refused to deliberate in writing. She wanted only to meet with me in person, without the meeting being recorded. I refused. After what I had been told by the Yale Housing Director, I wanted everything in writing. She refused to help me mitigate any of the egregious damage to my reputation and livelihood. And, she expressed a callous disregard for my personal safety. She made clear that she had never had and never would have any intention of addressing the fact that I had been terrorized in my own home, in my isolated dorm room, on February 24th. She also told me that if I had any further concerns for my personal safety in my dorm room in the Hall of Graduate Studies that I should move. Let me repeat that – Dean Michelle Nearon, the Yale Associate Dean of Graduate Student Development and Diversity and the Graduate School Title IX Coordinator, told me, as a middle aged disabled woman living alone in Yale’s on campus graduate student housing, that if I had concerns for my personal safety in my own home that I should move out, that I should vacate the premises. She also told me that the Yale Housing Director was now denying pretty much everything that he had said to me during our meeting on Friday, March 2nd, 2018.
Needless to say, I was dismayed and terrified. It seemed to me that the Yale Deans were determined to destroy my life, livelihood, and reputation, as well as discredit my work.
In the next video, I will discuss how I chose to respond, including by eventually contacting the Yale University wide Title IX Coordinator, Provost Stephanie Spangler.
Here is the How I Resisted Being Publicly Branded a Racist by Yale Deans After the February 24th, 2018 Incident YouTube Channel Video (Part II): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDlU8CkdY84
Here is the transcript thereof:
Hello. Welcome or welcome back to my channel. I am planning on recording a channel trailer, so that I don’t have to introduce myself or catch anyone up at the beginning of each video.
Today I am going to continue discussing the lengths to which I had to go to resist being wrongfully publicly branded a racist by a group of Yale Deans after the February 24thincident.
My attempts to resolve the issue with Grad School Diversity Dean Michelle Nearon, during the two weeks of spring break in mid March, 2018, had been entirely unsuccessful. She stated that she had no interest in addressing the attacks against me, nor in helping me save my livelihood and reputation, and she advised me to move out of my home in Yale’s on campus grad student housing, if I had concerns for my personal safety. Please note that Dean Nearon is the Grad School Title IX Coordinator, and she is also on the Yale University Title IX Steering Committee.
I was more than distraught and dismayed.
I had the thought that maybe going directly to Yale’s General Counsel would be a good idea. I’m an attorney, and I hoped that another attorney would realize that these Yale Deans were exposing Yale to extraordinary legal liability.
I decided to contact Counselor Caroline Hendel. I chose Counselor Hendel, because she is also on Yale’s Title IX Steering Committee.
I let Counselor Hendel know that I had grave concerns that Dean Nearon was in gross violation of Title IX regulations, as well as the ADA. I also let Counselor Hendel know that I had no desire to pursue civil litigation to protect my livelihood and reputation, but that I was prepared to do so.
I was severely disappointed by Counselor Hendel’s eventual response. She simply said that she had no interest in trying to help me and that I had no choice but to deal with Dean Nearon.
Around this same time, I was contacted by Sergeant Robbins Hoffman of the Yale campus police department. She was letting me know about victims’ resources with the Yale Police Department. I let her know, via email, that I was very concerned about my personal safety, after the students’ return to campus, following spring break.
I told Sergeant Robbins Hoffman that I felt as if Yale had put a sign on my back that read RACIST and that they had sent out an announcement that anyone who wished to do so was free to attack me and stalk me, including in my own home, with impunity.
I never received a response from Sergeant Robbins Hoffman. I imagined that she had been instructed by Counselor Hendel to contact me, in an effort to mitigate Yale’s legal liability, but then she had likewise been instructed not to respond to my subsequent email regarding my personal safety on Yale’s campus post spring break.
A very strange event occurred a few days later.
I received a call from Sergeant Robbins Hoffman, but when I answered the phone, she said, “Sorry. I dialed the wrong number,” and hung up on me. I also recognized her voice from the voice message that she had left for me.
At this point, I was terrified. Spring break was coming to an end, and I was terrified for what my attackers had planned for me when they returned to campus. I didn’t know what the Yale Deans were planning for me. I didn’t know if they were planning on having me expelled. I knew that they were determined to publicly brand me a racist and destroy my life, livelihood, and reputation.
I just knew that I had to do everything I possibly could to save my life.
The first thing that I did was to get in contact with the Yale Housing Managers to see if I could rescind my agreement to live in on campus housing the following academic year. I told them that I felt unsafe and unwelcome. I also told them that I was considering moving into a nearby hotel or motel for the duration of the academic year, because I was that concerned for my safety. The Yale Administration and Yale Housing had made clear that they had no intention of protecting me from being attacked in my own home. The problem was that I was teaching that semester, so I couldn’t simply leave New Haven altogether. But, another problem was that I simply didn’t have the money to pay for a hotel room for a couple of months. I was trapped.
After having to send a number of emails, I finally got the Yale Housing Managers to release me from my contract for the subsequent academic year. I wanted so much to simply leave New Haven and the Yale campus immediately, but I couldn’t.
I also decided to reach out to Provost Stephanie Spangler, the Yale University wide Title IX Coordinator. I didn’t know what else to do.
I sent an email to Provost Spangler, telling her everything that had happened.
I arranged to meet with her, and I did so, as well as with Associate Provost Cynthia Smith.
I told them everything that had occurred. I told them that I had very grave concerns that Dean Nearon, Counselor Hendel, and Sergeant Robbins Hoffman were all in gross violation of Title IX regulations, as well as the ADA. I told Provosts Spangler and Smith that they had all expressed callous disregard for my personal safety on Yale’s campus. I let them know that absolutely no one had ever addressed the fact that I was the one being attacked in my own home and stalked on campus.
I told them that I was aghast that the Yale Administration was taking the position that a disabled middle aged woman living alone in Yale’s on campus graduate student housing has no right to take reasonable precautions to ensure that she can enter her dorm room safely, including by calling the Yale campus police on their non emergency helpline, if need be, without being publicly branded a racist by Yale Deans and without having her life, livelihood, and reputation threatened.
I also let Provosts Spangler and Smith know that I had no desire to seek recourse in the civil courts for defamation and to protect my rights and interests, but that I was fully prepared to do so, if necessary. (I did begin to make inquiries with local law firms at this time.) I also made clear that I was ready to go to the press, if I needed to.
Between the end of spring break, near the end of March, 2018, and May 8th, 2018, I dealt pretty much exclusively with Provosts Spangler and Smith.
Provosts Spangler and Smith assured me, repeatedly, that the students who had been involved in the February 24thincident would stay away from me, my dorm room, and the 12thfloor of the Hall of Graduation Studies, because there was absolutely no reason for them to be there.
Provosts Spangler and Smith told me repeatedly, including after speaking with Yale campus police Chief Ronnell Higgins, that it was always ok for me to call the Yale campus police, for any reason, even if I was unsure that the circumstances constituted an actual safety threat or no. They told me that Chief Higgins had said that the Yale campus police always wants to be the one to make the determination whether there exists an actual safety hazard or no. He said that the Yale campus police always prefers to check on the matter, whatever it might be, to make sure that everything is ok. I had been told the exact same thing by Officer Grace Schenkle when I had filed my police report with the Yale campus police on March 9th, 2018. I was assured repeatedly, by Provosts Spangler and Smith, that it was always ok for me to call the Yale campus police department for any reason and that I had done absolutely nothing wrong by calling the Yale campus police department on their non emergency helpline on February 24th.
Provosts Spangler and Smith told me that the group of Yale Deans who had accused me of racism after the February 24thincident, and who had tried to publicly brand me as a racist, included Associate Dean Michelle Nearon, of course, as well as the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dean Lynn Cooley, and the Vice President of Student Life, Kimberly Goff-Crews.
One last point that I wish to make clear in this video is that Provost Spangler accidentally revealed to me that someone at Yale was feeding my personal information, including my name, to my attackers. Provost Spangler accidentally revealed to me that my attackers knew my name, and that this information had been released to them by someone at Yale. Of course, I was shocked and terrified. I did not know the names of my attackers prior to May 8th, 2018. And, I had only seen the man who made a number of television appearances during our unfortunate encounter on February 24th. I would have been hard pressed to recognize him again though. I had never seen the woman before May 8th, 2018.
In my next video, I will give you an account of what occurred between the time I began dealing with Provosts Spangler and Smith and May 8th, 2018, including the different stages of egregious harassment and stalking that occurred. I will also tell you how I begged the Yale Administration and the Yale campus police to protect me from these attacks and how I begged them to please close the 12thfloor common room, as it was only being used as an excuse to be on the 12thfloor of the Hall of Graduate Studies and as a means to harass and attack me incessantly.
If you wish to support me, as I seek justice, it would mean the world to me. Here are my PayPalMe and GoFundMe links.
PayPalMe: https://www.paypal.me/SarahBraasch
GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/sarah-braasch-legal-fund
You can follow me on twitter here: https://twitter.com/sarahbraasch1?lang=en
Please subscribe to my YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz4xV2R6mTVJhAu9OQzwp5g
