Yale University has reprimanded the White student who called campus police after finding a Black student sleeping in a dorm common area.
When police arrived, the Black student, Lolade Siyonbola, who was questioned at length, told them she had been up late Tuesday writing a paper and took a break. She fell asleep and was awakened by the White student – Sarah Braasch — who told Siyonbola she couldn’t sleep there. When the White student called police, Siyonbola said she began recording the situation.
“I have every right to call the police. You cannot sleep in that room,” Braasch is heard saying.
“I deserve to be here, I pay tuition like everyone else. I am not going to justify my existence here,” Siyonbola, a graduate student, responded.
To prove she was a graduate student, Although Siyonbola unlocked her apartment door and provided her student ID the officers still detained her go because they had trouble confirming her identity.
The officers explained they were only doing their job.
The incident counts as one of several instances where in recent times, Blacks across the country have been subjected to police interrogations after going about routine activities without causing trouble.