Colleagues of Associated Students of Madison Chair Allie Gardner have noticed changes to the student government leader recently, saying they are seeing a more aggressive and combative attitude after her brief stint in a Washington, D.C. jail.
Gardner was arrested Monday during a protest against student loan debt at the Washington headquarters of loan provider Sallie Mae. But since she was released, Gardner’s fellow ASM members say they have seen a change in her demeanor.
“When I told her I disagreed with her tactics in the protest, she threatened to ‘send Mikey to your place for a chat’ and mimed cutting her throat,” Student Services Finance Committee chair Sarah Neibart told The Daily Cardinal. “Later on, I saw her whittling a toothbrush into a shiv during open forum.”
A Daily Cardinal investigation revealed one possible reason for the change: During her time in jail, Gardner apparently organized and chaired a ruthless prison gang, the WISPIRG Disciples. Despite only being incarcerated for a matter of hours, Gardner overtook the jail’s drug and campaign literature distribution operations after a bloody rise to power.
Now, ASM members live in fear of Gardner the same way inmates in the District of Columbia jail did.
“I noticed her tear-drop tattoos and realized something was wrong,” ASM Vice Chair Andrew Bulovsky said. “Now every time I say something she doesn’t like, Allie just stares into my soul and mouths ‘I know where you live.’”
Records of Gardner’s time in jail obtained by The Daily Cardinal show she requested $100,000 in funding for training sessions in shiv maintenance, as well as money for travel to deal with “those mark-ass MS-13 tricks on Cell Block D.”
But Gardner denied that the WISPIRG Disciples had any criminal intentions.
“We’re not violent, we’re just looking to make sure inmates have a voice on the jail’s shared governance committee,” Gardner said in an e-mail to The Daily Cardinal. “Also, if you tell anyone we are a gang, I will literally stab your face off with this fork. Literally.”
