SCU Campus Police Allegedly Made Black Professor Prove She Lived in Her House

The assistant professor says campus police followed her brother to her on-campus home and demanded she show her ID to prove she lived there.

SCU Campus Police Allegedly Made Black Professor Prove She Lived in Her House

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Santa Clara University (SCU) launched an investigation after a Black assistant professor says campus police harassed her and her brother at her own home.

Danielle Fuentes Morgan says her brother, 32-year-old Carlos Fuentes, was visiting her after being apart for eight months due to the pandemic. Fuentes was allegedly approached by security while studying on campus and asked to leave, reports CNN.

Four police cruisers then allegedly followed Fuentes as he began walking to his sister’s house. Morgan says one of the officers knocked on her door with her brother, who said they were demanding she come out and “vouch” for him.

“I asked what the issue was and he said my brother was ‘in the bushes’ and it was ‘suspicious’ and they thought he may have been homeless,” she wrote in a Twitter thread about the incident.

A spokesperson for SCU campus safety told PEOPLE that after the campus was shut down due to COVID-19, they have seen a “tremendous increase in the number of homeless folks that have come through.”

“The area that they were talking about is a place where the homeless go to hang out,” the spokesperson continued. “It is not a bench in front of the library on campus — it is a secluded, dirt area off the front of campus where there is a ton of vegetation that separates the view of campus to this area.”

The officer then allegedly demanded Morgan show him her campus ID and prove that the house she was standing in was actually hers. When asked why she needed to show ID at her own home, the officer reportedly said, “Well, it’s not your home. The university owns it.”

“I told them that I was one of seven Black faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences and that our student body population is 2% Black. I told them that the anti-Blackness they espouse and practice is part of the reason why,” Morgan said. “We know from history and present day, that Black people are not safe in their homes. We’re not safe in church, we’re not safe on the streets, we’re not safe in our classrooms. So where do we find sanctuary?”

The incident is now under investigation by administrators. SCU President Kevin O’Brien said the officers have been put on administrative leave and a review of SCU’s practices and policies is underway. O’Brien also said officers will receive training on racial profiling in the coming weeks and the university will obtain an outside investigator if needed.

“I look forward to the outcome that’s going to vindicate what this situation was,” the SCU campus safety spokesperson said of the investigation. “It was us asking somebody who was not supposed to be on campus to move along and that person moved along to a university house that we had to, at least, make sure that person was connected to that house.”

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Amy is Campus Safety’s Executive Editor. Prior to joining the editorial team in 2017, she worked in both events and digital marketing.

Amy has many close relatives and friends who are teachers, motivating her to learn and share as much as she can about campus security. She has a minor in education and has worked with children in several capacities, further deepening her passion for keeping students safe.

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4 responses to “SCU Campus Police Allegedly Made Black Professor Prove She Lived in Her House”

  1. Randy says:

    Was the officer or officers suppose to recognize Ms. Morgan on site? Would the officers need to prove identification through the the SCU campus website (which can be done)? Did Ms. Morgan converse or confront the officers? the Officers who were following an unidentified person, who was simply asked to leave the campus 106 acre property. That instead of leaving campus property, went to a campus owned home located on campus property? Is her brother just visiting a closed to the public, “shut down” campus? Does the visitor have a campus approved pass? This article leaves a lot of unanswered questions to the alleged wrong doing and leads one to believe that confrontation was invited rather than negated, deescalated.

  2. Jeff Charles says:

    I’m so glad black people = homeless folks. Keep up on racial profiling

  3. Jack Spencer says:

    Randy, you are so intelligent, why don’t you answer your own questions, she acted just as she should have, she is an intelligent, law abiding citizen and an employee of that university just as the cops are. And to that matter, it is her home, whether it’s apart of her benefit package or if she pays to rent it. I would ask if there are other non-black faculty who have had that question posed to them. It’s people like you who perpetuate this ignorance, and continue to lead this country into hell holes..

  4. Bill says:

    I would to know if there were body worn cameras that might tell us the entire story. Generally speaking I don’t see an issue with the officers verifying the person and the house, especially university owned housing, despite the color references. My question is how did the officers do it? The same result can be accomplished by explaining and keeping it low key as apposed to demanding the know their name etc. Seems the professor could also have had a different take on the issue, such as the officers protecting her and her house from this unknown person…….but again we don’t know how it was approached.

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