PCC Courier, May 06, 1999

THURSDAY 3VL ЛТГ 6, 1999 - VOL. 84#29 Insight COIKOH, IMF; Students deliver an exhibition en the 15 vears ollashlon at PCD Pages Trends Bobby and Roger take it to tbe streets in a dueling review ot "Entrapment' Радев www.pcc-courieronline .com POLICE BEAT Lawsuits Plague College Police An investigation into past legal action against campus police finds two out of three cases are unfounded BY ROG€R CHENG Staff Writer Over the years, the campus police have been the target of several lawsuits attacking them. However, it seems that the charges in these suits usually end up to be unfounded. Two of three suits have recently been thrown out of the courts. The college appears to be a target for anyone with a bone to pick or a lawsuit to file. Taking a look at two past lawsuits that the college has endured, one can determine that campus police have attracted a lot of “nuisance cases,” according to Officer Leroy Henderson. The first suit involves Gary Steven Maat-Hotep, a student who attended the school in 1994. He claimed in his case that two officers Ralph Evans and Henderson, along with two cadets, Richard Fitsimmons and Danny Vargas, caused him “emotional and mental pain and suffering.” Maat-Hotep also alleged in his suit that Henderson began harassing him when the officer yelled, “Hey, you look like a criminal guilty of a crime.” He said this incident occurred in the col¬ lege library where several surrounding students heard the accusation, including Susan Brady. However, Henderson denies ever saying anything remotely like what Maat-Hotep alleged. “We only told him that we just want¬ ed to talk to him,” said Henderson. Matt-Hotep continued by claiming that the officers detained him there while yelling at him to sit down. Once again, Henderson denied that there was any yelling at the scene. “I told him that if you haven’t done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about,” said Henderson. “I don’t know how he got the rest of it.” The officers had gotten a tip from Mai Bich Tran, another student that had mistakenly identified Maat-Hotep as a suspect she saw on the program, “America’s Most Wanted.” Both Henderson and Evans admitted in court that they had not verified whether the accusations were correct before approaching Maat-Hotep. As a law student, Maat-Hotep was able to defend himself in court. He had also sued the City of Pasadena three times in the past. However, the case was recently thrown out of court. He also said that Maat-Hotep was assum¬ ing that the college would settle, some¬ thing that PCC did not do. The second suit involved Dr. Gordon Brown, former president of the Faculty Senate and instructor at the college. It was filed in 1995. Brown’s point of contention involved a meeting between himself and Joyce Black, vice president of instructional services, and William Goldmann, former dean of education (a position no longer in existence). POUC€. pg. 6 RICHARD FAV6LA / THE COURIER Police cadet Doug Wu talks to a student. RAY SHUI / THE COURIER Long jumper Karen Ota takes off during the Southern California Preliminaries last Saturday at Mt. SAC. SEE STORY, PG. 7 TECH NEWS COMMENCEMENT Graduation Set for May 21 Over 500 students to receive degrees in 74th annual ceremony in front of C building BY ROGER CHENG Staff Writer The 74th annual graduation ceremony will be held on Friday, May 21 to honor those students who have completed a cur¬ riculum based on their major or field of specialty and have earned an Associate degree. Approximately 500 students will par¬ ticipate in the event, a number that has remained constant throughout the last few years. “That’s around the same number we have every year,” said Mark Wallace, director of public relations. So although there were no dramatic increases in graduation rates, there also weren’t any major decreases either. This is out of 1,200 students that had CULTURAL BEAT petitioned for graduation throughout the year. Another 100 students will also be on hand to receive the high school diploma they earned at the Community Education Center. Among the members of the graduating class are the three valedictorians, Suresh Lakshmipathi, Elise Hokulami Matsushima and Michelle Tu Monroe. Lakshmipathi is also the vice president of publicity on the AS board. “Of course it’s an honor. It’s nice to be recognized for that,” said Lakshmipathi. “For a community college, this is a com¬ petitive school, so I don’t take it for grant¬ ed.” Lakshmipathi, Monroe and Matsyshima each earned a flawless 4.0 grade point average to receive this distinc¬ tive honor. “I had a lot of support from Dr. Milton Brown, Rebecca Cobb and Stephen Johnson, among others,” said Lakshmipathi. “They gave me some guid¬ ance.” The current AS officer will also be making a speech on behalf of the other two valedictorians. Each student participating in the grad¬ uation ceremony had already gone through the rigors of following a course outline that involved completing basic requirement classes as well as classes geared towards a specific field. Although most are looking forward to transferring to a four-year university, others are receiving terminal degrees. Two speakers will also be on hand to offer words of encouragement to the departing class. The commencement speaker will be USC president Steven B. GRAD, pg. 4 Young Prodigy Speaks to BSA 16-year-old Ayinde Jean-Baptiste talks about strengthening the black community BY TIM ALVES Staff Writer Skilled orator and 16-year-old child prodigy, Ayinde Jean-Baptiste gave the keynote address Friday night at the Black Student Alliance event that honored him for his work as an inspirational speaker and positive role model for black youth in America. Jean-Baptiste’s “Building the Black Community: A Youthful Perspective,” identified the media, family, and the schools, as areas where young adults need guidance and preparation to ascend into roles of leadership and strengthen the African American community. “Working with the youth is not easy, but it must be done. The institutions that shape thought: the media, the family, and the school systems must be employed to promote and strengthen the youth for the challenges of tomorrow,” said Jean- Baptiste. Although Jean-Baptiste’s address last¬ ed for more than 30 minutes, specific methods for bringing about the changes he urged were absent. Citing the media as the most powerful force behind role modeling and shaping the goals for black youth, Jean-Baptiste said that television, video games, movies, and music, “tell us what group to look up to; they play a role in our destruction. They glamorize drugs and gun violence; venerating vandalism, crime, and those that have been to jail.” “Then the media turns around and places blame on the youth of today. The media should not scapegoat us with the blame for society’s ills. I don’t know why young people are synonymous with drugs. We don’t, grow it. We don’t import the stuff. But we do, however, allow our¬ selves to take the drugs. We allow our¬ selves to sell the drugs. We cannot let ourselves be used like this.” Continued on the Website Campus Network Has Occasional Problems BY SID SARAF Staff Writer For students who don’t have com¬ puters at home, using the campus labs is a necessity to pass classes here. While most students expect things at this school to function without a hitch, a sizeable network can run across problems every once in awhile. This was no more true than on Tuesday, April 27, when the entire campus network went down for close to an hour. Apparently, a network card began “chattering,” or sending packets of info without control, until the network went down. This prob¬ lem started with a single computer in one of the labs, but nothing could be fixed until the power was shut off and technicians were given a chance to find out what the problem was. Although this problem inconve¬ nienced students who were working on papers and other assignments, according to some members of com¬ puting services, this can happen from time to time. This is due to the fact that the size of the network here on campus is far bigger than your aver¬ age business. Normal businesses usually have anywhere from 50 to 100 computers on their networks. PCC’s computer pipeline has 1500 for student use, and even more on the faculty network. The department also has to maintain the 40,000 student accounts every semester. NETWORK, pg. 4 wears on tbe Web? www.pcc-courieronline.com THE EH О IS COMING: SNIFF SniFF....UITH THE EF1D OF THE SEHESTER СОШНО. ПАКЕ SURE TO CHECH OUT THE SITE TO SEE OUR BEAR-EHD URRP-UPS OH-LIHE FUII STORIES: ARTICLES THAT HAD TO BE EDITED FROD ITS ORIGIHAL PERSIOH UILL RUH FULL- LEHGTH OH THE SITE DANIEL ARCHULETA / THE COURIER MORE OPINIONS THE HEUSPAPER JUST DOES НОТ НАЯ EHOUGH ROOD TO FIT ALL OF OUR HEUS OH LIFE. TAKE A LOOK AT AH EXTRA 0Р1Н10П ВУ ROGER CHEHG THIS UEEK