UWM lecturer releases statement regarding comments made about Vanessa Guillen

MILWAUKEE -- Betsy Schoeller – the UW-Milwaukee senior lecturer who was scrutinized on social media for public comments made about the murder of Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guillen – has released a personal statement after online petitions with thousands of signatures called for her removal.

Below is Schoeller's statement:

A protest was held on the UWM campus Wednesday evening, July 8 regarding Schoeller's comments:

One petition on Change.org collected more than 11,000 virtual signatures as of Sunday evening, July 5. Another collected more than 125,000.

Both call for the university to hold Schoeller accountable for the comment on a post about Guillen, a Fort Hood soldier missing since April. There had been speculation that a suspect in her disappearance had sexually harassed her. However, officials said there is no information corroborating that was the case.

In screenshots of the comment shared with FOX6 News, Schoeller allegedly wrote the following:

It has since been deleted.

The investigation into Guillen's disappearance has garnered nationwide coverage and the arrest of one suspect accused of intent to impair a human corpse. Guillen's family believes human remains found earlier this week are those of the missing soldier, and a family attorney has stated that Guillen was killed. The lawyer for the family said Sunday Army investigators identified the remains as the missing soldier’s. 

Schoeller is a senior lecturer in the UWM School of Information Studies.

The university issued the following statement on Twitter Saturday regarding the situation.

The Wisconsin National Guard, of which Schoeller was a member until 2017, also released a statement.