Transylvania student claims she was targeted due to DACA status

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – A University of Transylvania student says she was targeted for deportation by a fellow classmate on Facebook. By Wednesday, the Facebook post and her plea for help had gone viral.

“I’m scared . . . for what the future holds.”

You can hear the fear in Paola Garcia’s voice in the YouTube video she made asking for help.

Garcia says a student named Taylor Ragg posted a screen shot of Garcia’s Facebook profile along with the comment “Everyone go report this illegal at my school bragging about breaking the law!”, on a Facebook group. Then, Garcia says she started receiving threats.

“That night I received numerous messages on Facebook from members of that group, someone actually sent me a picture of them filling out a tip form to homeland security.”

She says she was targeted because of her DACA status, Garcia, born in Mexico, came to the United States when she was 2-years-old, under former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, which President Donald Trump is ending.

The university says the campus is inclusive and very diverse and for a student to be that discriminatory, it comes to them as a shock.

“Transylvania University does not condone any kind of harassment, or bullying or racial slurs or hate speech, we are just an institution that absolutely will not tolerate that kind of behavior.”

According to several different national news sources including CBS, Garcia reported a different story.

She said she reached out to the school and her requests for action went unanswered, Transylvania then told her Ragg did not violate school policy.

School spokesperson Gaither Sparks said that’s not the case, they just needed more time to take action.

“We have a lot of policies and procedures that we have to follow, this story kind of got ahead of those policies and procedures.”

The university president released a statement Thursday about the incident, saying “Many assumed and criticized the university for making no response, nothing could be further from the truth. We worked around the clock to address this situation.”

As of Thursday morning, the president states Taylor Ragg is no longer enrolled at the university.