Imagine going 24 hours without being notified about police raiding your dorm. Imagine thinking that you were robbed. Imagine your white roommate being allowed to call the police on you for suspected drug paraphernalia. Imagine, imagine, for a first-generation, international, Mexican student this is their reality. The District of Columbia limits the use of no-knock warrants but for a GW student, the police were allowed to enter their room without her presence, going through her things without a warning or even an email stating that they went through her room.
A couple of days later she received an email stating charges against her for drug charges, damage to property, and harassment for confronting her roommate about the police raiding. She wasn’t allowed to see the evidence against her until her hearing. She wasn’t allowed someone to represent her as she was told this is, “a learning experience.” How is being raided and policed a learning experience? How is facing a committee board without any representation a learning experience? A learning experience for who exactly?
When she was finally presented with the evidence against her, the pictures for her drug charges included her sage. Yup, you read that right, she had a drug charge against her for having sage in her room. If you aren’t aware of what sage is as the GW conduct board isn’t, sage is an herb that is used as a spiritual and cultural ritual to cleanse a person or a space. They ended up dropping those charges but the trauma that is left with this student is something that won’t go away.
Instead of studying for finals and enjoying summer, she had to fight charges that shouldn’t have been there to begin with. As an international student on a visa, getting in trouble with the school could be a reason to get her sent back. The stress and fear that these charges evoked is something that no one should have to go through.
This is yet again another instance where George Washington University fails to protect its Brown students. If she was white and wealthy do you think her roommate would have called the cops on her? If she was white and wealthy do you think the cops would have given her a courtesy call? If she was white and wealthy do you think they would have raided her room and carried out a list of charges? If she was white and wealthy do you think they would have believed her instead of her white roommate? The answer to all of these questions is no. Brown and Black people are disproportionately targeted and policed.
This incident should be a wake-up call for the university to culturally train and evaluate its misconduct board. This should be a wake-up call for GW to realize that there continue to be incidents where Black and Brown students are harmed. This should be a wake-up call for GW to change. George Washington University is complicit in the policing of a first-generation, international, Mexican student and should be held accountable.