PHOTO/PATITA FEA CATANO
SYLMAR, CA — It is now mid-semester and the tides of protests have died down. Two students have been suspended from Los Angeles Mission College, located in Sylmar, CA, for simply questioning a college administration decision denying tenure to Guillermo Aviles, a popular drama teacher (Guillermo is actually the only drama teacher at Mission).
Those suspended were Norma Ramirez, famous community activist who has been in community battles since 1990 and was the leader of United for Education Coalition. The second was Ana Marie Cateano, leader of the Student Empowerment at Mission.
Mission College has been designated by the federal government as a Hispanic Learning Institution. It has an 87% Chicano student body, but the faculty is all white and very racist. The faculty has fought for years against the establishment of a Chicano Studies Department and against hiring Chicano full time faculty.
Two semesters ago, Academic Senate leader Angela Echeverria, Vice President Alma Hawkins and the Associated Student Advisor urged an older student, Evy Trevant, to create racial divisions between Chicano and the few Black students on campus. With it, they engineered a recall of the ASO president, Danny Campus, before he had even taken office. They held up appointment to the ASO for months destroying any progress for an entire semester. The administration did nothing against them.
I am a community member and I was one of the first members of the community to help establish Mission College. As I spoke before the Academic Senate to voice my opposition to the suspensions of Norma and Ana, the college had eight armed deputy sheriffs and surveillance cameras in the room. Norma and Ana Marie’s only crime was to ask why the recommendation of the Accreditation Committee had not been implemented.
Last year, Los Angeles Mission College was dinged with 17 infractions and was put on probation by the Accreditation Committee. One of the recommendations was better communication and respect between the faculty and students, in addition to including students in college government decisions, which the Academic Senate has earned an “F” for this semester. Mission has gone backwards rather than forward.
Mission College community members and students have gone to the Board of Trustees to plead for intervention, but have been met with deaf ears. It appears they have crushed the student movement this semester. The kangaroo court which condemned Norma and Ana Marie did not consider the evidence, which clearly shows that there were no threatening moves by either of them. Armed Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies took out Ana Marie’s two babies from the Campus Day Care Center and they are banished for the semester.
Eugene Hernandez is from the San Fernando Valley Green Party
