т
Feature:
Batman and
Robin need a
new home
Entertainment:
Don’t be hatin’
‘Malibu’s Most
Wanted’
Sports :
Pep squads
looking for a few
good women
See Page 4
See Page 5
See Page 6
1 P A S A D E N A
C I 1
Г
Y
С О
I
. L E G E
Courier
Since 1 915
VOL. 88 NO. 25
www.pcc-courieronline.coin
April 24, 2003
Suspected Stalker Caught
Mitchell Wright
Sports Editor
Campus police offi¬
cers apprehended a
PCC student, Monday,
on charges of stalking
and trespassing after a
three-month long
investigation.
Jorge R. Fajardo,
32, was arrested out¬
side his home by Lt. Bradley Young and
officer Alan Chan, after Fajardo repeated¬
ly harassed a female classmate. What
prompted the arrest were threating visits to
the victim.
The suspect was ordered to remain off
campus property by college officials last
month. However, he remained persistent.
“The suspect kept coming onto campus,
Crime
Watch
seeking out to follow and annoy and harass
the stalking victim,” said Young. “That
happened last Friday when Fajardo was on
campus.”
The fascination with the young woman
began on Feb. 3., with one of six hand
delivered letters to the victim. According
to the police report, “The writing suggest¬
ed an existing relationship between sus¬
pect and victim,” which the victim denies
ever happening.
On Feb. 10, the suspect handed her a
second letter during class. At the time she
informed she was not interested in a rela¬
tionship and asked him to stop giving her
letters.
After three more letters, she informed
her instructor about being followed and
annoyed by Fajardo.
The report says that he ignored the
warning by the instructor and continued to
seat himself near the victim, who kept
switching desks to avoid him.
Things escalated when the victim
told Fajardo that she was in a relation¬
ship with someone else. The report
indicated that he stood up and angrily
said, “That guy of yours must sure be
something special!” He then threw
down another letter on her desk.
The suspect allegedly began fol¬
lowing her around campus, trying to
involve her in “bizarre conversa¬
tions.”
Though an administrative hearing
ordered Fajardo banned from PCC, he
still continued to show up to class.
On March 14, when the victim
entered class, she found Fajardo lying
in the doorway. He then followed her
see STALKER, page 3
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photo illustration by Gilda Davidian
Photographer Gilda Davidian, makes a statement on current events
in her piece which was displayed at the fifth annual “Borders of
Diversity” conference held last week. Davidian was one of a select
number of artists to be featured at the all-day conference. The
conference featured many student speakers who lashed out against
the U.S. military campaign in Iraq.
A.S. Elections To
Be Tallied Online
Linda Rapka and
Trina Merry
Staff Writers
The college’s first-ever online
voting system will be used next
month for the Associated Students
(AS) general election in an effort
to improve efficiency and increase
student voting.
“Other schools have seen larger
voter turnouts after implementing
an online voting system,” said
Steven Johnson, assistant dean for
student affairs. Over 1,000 stu¬
dents voted last year, and it is
hoped that number will double or
triple with the new electronic vot¬
ing system.
The AS decided to implement
an online voting system after years
of facing problems with counting
manual ballots. “The Scantron
reader we had to use is very out¬
dated, and we kept running into
technical problems each year,”
Johnson said. “The online voting
system will help maintain accuracy
and security, and get the technolo¬
gy up to date,” he stated.
Students will be able' to vote
from anywhere with access to the
internet anytime between Monday,
May 5 at 8 a.m. until Wednesday,
May 7 at 11:59 p.m. Computers
will also be set aside as voting
booths in the Computer Cafe from
7 a.m. until 10 p.m. during elec¬
tions. A link to the election’s web¬
site will be posted on the college’s
website, pasadcna.edu. It will be
on a banner at the top of the screen
during elections.
Prior to online voting, students
could only vote on campus at cer¬
tain time intervals during two days.
“Students will have a lot more
access to voting this way,” said
Johnson.
The online elections will be
# see ONLINE, page 3
School
Tests
No.1 in
STDs
Whitney Porter and
Dolores Mendoza
Staff Writers
PCC recently found itself rank¬
ing No. 1 in a categoiy where last
place is really the preferred spot.
Results of a recent study showed
that PCC ranked No. 1 for students
infected with a form of a sexually
transmitted disease.
Six other schools, including El
C a m i n
о
College, East
Los Angeles
College, Los
Angeles Trade
Tech, South-
West College,
College of the
Canyons and
Los Angeles City College partici¬
pated in the study.
However, the reason PCC
ranked first is because the other six
schools did not have as many active
participants as PCC.
In August 2002, the Student
Health Center teamed up with Los
Angeles County STD program to
offer free gonorrhea/chlamydia
testing to PCC students.
In the fall semester, students had
positive results that were more than
double what had been expected.
This particular program targeted
one of the most common STDs:
chlamydia. Women tested at 7 per¬
cent positive and men at 10 percent
positive. The goal of the health cen¬
ter is to be 3 percent or lower.
PCC being number one means
that more students are getting test-
® see TESTS, page 3
STD
Awareness
Math
Second in
Nation
Nick Barral
Opinion Editor
Math students at PCC took sec¬
ond place in the national Student
Mathematics League competition.
The contest took place from
Feb. 21 to March 15 this year. Tests
last one hour and they are adminis¬
tered one day out of the testing
window.
PCC lost to City College of San
Francisco by four and a half-points
“That’s roughly two questions,”
Jude Socrates said.
Socrates, moderator for the
exam at PCC, recruited, advised
and coached students who took the
test. He administered the hour long
test on campus and made certain
that students didn’t leak the ques¬
tions.
Sixty students from PCC took
the test. Of the 60, Jiajing Xu and
Xiao Xu placed in the top 10
among the nation’s contestants.
. ® see MATH, page 3
Homeschoolers Adjust
to College, Campus Life
Students have no trouble adjusting to PCC and
schooling away from the comforts of home
Whitney Porter
Staff Writer
When students enter their classes on
the first day of school, they will pick a
seat and often converse with the people
around them.
Most of them presume that
the person sitting next to them
has completed their schooling
at a traditional high school,
but that might not be the case.
Many PCC students have
been homeschooled.
It was recorded in the
2001-2002 school year that an
estimated 1.725 million to
2.185 million children
between kindergarten and the
12th grade were home-
schooled; an estimated 250,000
340,000 were in high school.
In the state of California as many as
200,000 students may be homeschooled.
This, however, has changed over the
past few years.
While there are no statistics for the
number of homschooled students attend¬
ing PCC, three of the area homeschool
groups each send approximately 15 to 20
students here each semester.
Despite the new teaching trend of home¬
schooling, many people still find it odd when
they meet a homeschooled student.
Usually when a student runs
into someone who was home-
schooled, an often-asked ques¬
tion may be, “Is your parent a
teacher,” “Are your days struc¬
tured,” or “How are your
socialization skills?”
Parents who homeschool
their children are often not cre-
dentialed teachers; however,
they follow a structured cur-
Coulson riculum.
Studying in the confines of
one’s own personal space is one of the
major perks, whether it is at the dining
room table, under the covers, or maybe on
a sofa at home or at PCC.
“It wasn’t a big adjustment to start at
PCC,” said Adam Coulson, Chief Justice
for Associated Students and a formerly
Ж
Photo Illustration by Julian Philips
This homeschooler has had to learn to adjust to life at PCC.
to
homeschooled student who started here in
10th grade.
However, he said that downside was
“no organized sports.”
Nonetheless, he got involved in club
teams and eventually the PCC soccer
team.
“You are able to focus a lot more on
your studies and not be as distracted by
your peers,” said Diana Caceres, 19, who
has attended PCC since 1 1 th grade.
Students develop independent study
habits, which directly aids in mainstream¬
ing into the community college setting.
The need for independence and individu¬
ality is greatly needed and developed by stu¬
dents due to the extensive family bonding.
“When you attend PCC, it is easy to be
yourself and not let it affect your work
habits. Because of your family relation¬
ships you learn how to get along with peo¬
ple,” said Emily Peters, and 11th grade
PCC student.
If you are interested in more informa
tion about homeschooling, contact the
Link newspaper at (888) 470-4513 or
www.homeschoollink.com about partici¬
pating in the annual homeschool confer
ence, May 1-4, at the Pasadena Hilton
Hotel.
Whitney Porter can be reached at
porter_courier@yahoo.com