by Emily Snell | Mar 25, 2011 | News Slider
Lipscomb students were turned away at Scotland’s border during spring break when they tried to enter the country for their mission trip. The team was denied access by Scottish customs officials when they arrived on Sunday, March 13, to start their work with Westmaines Church of Christ. The situation is currently under investigation. Katie Dillard, senior in studio art, was one of the team’s student leaders. She said it is still somewhat unclear why the group was detained, but she said she thinks they were targeted by the officials. “We’re all white Anglo-Saxons,” Dillard said. “But none of us look at all suspicious. I guess the moment we showed up on the UK border, I felt like we were profiled as Americans.” Dillard, who is from the Washington D.C. area, has travelled internationally before and said that she worked hard to prepare her team for the trip. But things started to go wrong, she said, when one of the customs officials began questioning a student. “She was asking very intruding questions,” Dillard said. “He was not expecting her to interrogate him like that.” “Everything started snowballing downhill from there.” One team member, Emily Millstead, a freshman social work major, was cleared to enter the country but was sent back when the officials decided to detain the whole group. Millstead, who is originally from Grand Blanc, Mich., said she has traveled internationally before but felt nervous in Scotland. “That’s the most intimidating customs I’ve ever been through,” Millstead said. “It was kind of intense.” Millstead said she was putting away her passport when she heard some commotion and realized there...
