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Courier
Since 1915
VOL. 88 NO. 7 www.pcc-courieronline.com OCTOBER 10, 2002
Attack Victim Fighting Back
Man beaten by three PCC students struggles to make sense of the mindless crime
By Steve LuKanic
Staff Writer
Three-year-old Joshua Gomez
happily plays with his toys in the
comer of his family’s Hollywood
apartment, but not before telling a
story. “Three bad men beat up my
papa,” he says matter-of-factly.
“But now they’re in jail and they’re
going to be punished.”
Sadly, for Joshua’s father, Josue,
the story isn’t quite that simple, nor
does it end there.
For six weeks, ever since that
Tuesday evening in August when he
was savagely beaten 'and left for
dead by three PCC students on the
northeast comer of the campus,
Josue has been filled with rage.
Rage over the pain he has suf¬
fered — the dizzy spells, the
headaches, the shooting pains in his
face when he tries to exercise or
race a paddleboat on a weekend
outing in Griffith Park with his wife
and son.
' Rage over the countless sleep¬
less nights when he awakens in a
cold sweat from yet another night¬
mare, his mind in perpetual replay
of the beating.
Rage over how he’ll find
work — he was laid off from his job
a month before the attack — when
he’s still battling legal and medical
matters.
But mostly, Josue Gomez is
enraged over why the three young
men — Daniel Sciolini, 18, Archie
Thompson, 21, and Antonio
Cervantes, 19 — ever attacked him
in the first place.
“I’ve been through a lot of tough
situations in my life,” the 32-year-
old Gomez said. “Very, very tough.
But I never expected anything like
this to happen.”
The beating on Aug. 27 was a
brutal and
abrupt ending to
what had other¬
wise been a joy¬
ous evening cel-
e b r a t i n g
Joshua’s third
birthday at the
Chuck E Cheese
in Pasadena.
Avenue and crossed the street with
Lisandro to take pictures in front of
the PCC sign. Iczel opted to wait in
the car with Joshua.
Lisandro had barely begun tak¬
Join
i n g
Josue, his
wife,
Iczel,
and
Joshua
that
night
was
L i s a n
d
г о
Villacorta,
28, a
childhood friend
of Josue’s
who
had been
visit-
ing
from
Guatemala since
June and
was
scheduled to fly
home in
days.
three
On the
way
to the restaurant,
driving
past
PCC, Lisandro
was
SO
impressed with
the campus that he told Josue he
wanted to take some pictures there.
So after the party, on their way
back to Hollywood, Josue parked
his white Hyundai near the comer
of Colorado Boulevard and Bonnie
ing photos of Josue when they
heard a yell.
“I thought it was my wife calling
me,” said Josue. But when he
turned around, he saw three men in
a gray Nissan Sentra driving down
Bonnie Avenue with their windows
rolled down. According to Josue,
they appeared to be poking fun at
him and Lisandro for taking pic¬
tures, something Josue chose to
ignore. But
when the car
pulled a u-tum
and pulled up
next to them,
Josue instantly
sensed some¬
thing bad was
about to happen.
Not that he
was intimated
by their size —
they weren’t
particularly tall
or muscular.
But they wore
loose, baggy
clothes, and
Josue suspected
they might be
gang members.
Additionally,
he said, “Their
pupils didn’t
look right. I
couldn’t tell if
they were doing
drugs, but I
could tell they
were drinking.”
As the driver,
Daniel Sciolini,
car and walked
toward Josue and Lisandro, Josue
wasn’t sure what to do, but he
sensed that walking or running
away would be a mistake.
“In my younger days, I wasn’t
Atliena Stain os/Lo urier
got out of the
in gangs, but I knew how
gang members react,” he
said. “If you ignore them,
they look at that as disre¬
spect.”
He also feared that if
they wanted to pick a fight
with him, and if he ran for
his car, they might run after
him and, perhaps, try to
hurt Iczel and Joshua. And
if they were carrying a gun,
they could shoot him in the
back.
So he decided to stay
where he was. Besides, he
said, “I’m 32 years old. ..a
family man. I’m not going
to start a fight.”
As Sciolini approached
him, Josue lifted his hands,
palms up, as if to say, “What’s the
problem?”
“I thought he probably had mis¬
taken me for someone else,” Josue
said. But instantly, Sciolini started
yelling at him, then walked up and
began punching him in the face.
Josue tried to defend himself, but
Sciolini was so enraged, Josue
could barely throw more than one
or two punches in self defense.
Then, when Archie Thompson got
out of the Sentra and joined in the
fight,
Josue said he remembers yelling
out to Lisandro to take pictures and
to call the police. As Josue fell to
the ground, Sciolini and Thompson
kept kicking him in the face and
head while the third man, Antonio
Cervantes — noticing Lisandro was
taking pictures — yelled to' the oth¬
photo courtesy of Lisandro Villacorta
ers, “I’m going to get the fool with
the camera!” and ran after Lisandro.
But Lisandro — too frightened to
even look for oncoming traffic —
darted across Colorado Boulevard
toward Josue’s Hyundai, safely dis¬
tancing himself from Cervantes
who turned and ran back to the
fight.
Meanwhile, Iczel and Joshua
were still in the car across the street,
oblivious to the beating. Iczel was
talking on her cell phone with a
friend who had called to wish
Joshua a happy birthday when sud¬
denly someone began banging on
the window.
It was Lisandro, screaming in
broken English, “Call the police,
call the police! They’re beating up
® see BEATING, page 3
the results of the planning and
budgeting are clearly communicat¬
ed to all constituents,” Fallo said.
Another recommendation
called on the school to update its
faculty evaluation process to
emphasize teaching and learning.
The team singled out academic
and student support programs for
special notice and approval. “You
have so many superb programs on
campus,” Fallo said. He used the
writing center as a specific exam¬
ple. “We were significantly
impressed with the widespread
faculty and staff support. It is fully
integrated into the curriculum and
has a clear student focus.”
• see REPORT, page 4
Sheryl McQuilkin/Courier
Barbara Turner and other faculty address Thomas
Fallo prior to the exit report meeting on Thursday.
By Terrance Parker
Staff Writer
Pasadena Silly College has
many superb programs, according
to the exit report last Thursday by
the visiting accreditation team.
Actually, the report was issued
for Pasadena City College, but a
slip of the tongue brought laughter
and applause to the upbeat but
serious meeting.
Team chairman Thomas Fallo,
president of El Camino College,
paused to explain his faux pas.
“I was saying to myself, ‘Don’t
say El Camino College,’ and I did¬
n’t,” Fallo exclaimed.
He then resumed his report on
the committee’s findings.
Under the rules of the
Accrediting Commission for
Community and Junior Colleges
(ACCJC), the team must give its
report, then leave immediately, not
ever answering questions.
The accreditation team made a
point of commending PCC’s facul¬
ty and staff.
“Their commitment to academ¬
ic excellence and to providing
responsible student support servic¬
es are the foundation for a positive
and nurturing student learning
environment that meets the needs
of a culturally, ethnically and
physically diverse student popula¬
tion.”
The team was also impressed
with the pride in the school and the
commitment to quality expressed
by faculty, staff and students.
“Your students clearly hold
your college and its faculty and
staff in high esteem,” noted Fallo.
“This college’s common unity is
quality education.”
One recommended improve¬
ment was for PCC to develop a
more understandable planning and
budgeting process.
“The budgeting process should
be driven by the planning and
comprehensive college-wide pro¬
gram reviews. The team further
recommends that the college
develop procedures to ensure that
Accreditation Team Gives Campus High Marks
New Technology Lab Melds Media With Classroom
By Steve LuKanic
Staff Writer
The fusion of media and educa¬
tion will be in the spotlight today as
the Media Center unveils its newly
remodeled, state-of-the-art
Technology Training Center in an
open house from noon to 2 p.m.
The center, located in LL118, is
a new digital media lab in which
faculty and staff can develop and
maintain technology-based lec¬
tures, presentations and websites,
as well as create multimedia mate¬
rials for classroom and on-line
instruction.
It is also the realization of a
dream that Johari DeWitt-Rogers,
director of media services, envi¬
sioned nearly two years ago when
she and Joseph O’Connor, coordi¬
nator of media resources, co-wrote
their initial Partnership For
Excellence (PFE) funding propos¬
al.
According to DeWitt-Rogers,
PFE provides funds to community
colleges for projects which
improve student success, retention
and the ability to transfer.
“These are areas that really help
our students here at PCC to step up
to the plate and either graduate or
transfer to a four-year institution,”
Dewitt-Rogers said.
She and O’Connor had hoped
the proposal for the Training Center
would meet PFE criteria, and- when
the funding came through, they
couldn’t have been more pleased.
“This is something that will be
here for a long time,” said DeWitt-
Rogers, who also started the ongo¬
ing smart classroom project six
years ago. “Many students will be
able to benefit from this expendi¬
ture of funds,” she said.
DeWitt-Rogers said there were a
variety of suggestions as to where
to build the new lab, but because
PCC is landlocked, there was little
opportunity for expansion.
“So we decided that it had to be
within the Media Center.” The
selected location, LL118, was for¬
merly the center’s instructional tel¬
evision dub center.
Last summer, the room was
completely remodeled — new car¬
peting, paint and furniture — and
outfitted as a wireless facility with
new computers, scanners and dig¬
ital cameras, all of which will be
on display at today’s open house.
DeWitt-Rogers said everyone at
PCC is invited to attend the open
house, during which PCC presi¬
dent Dr. James Kossler will cut a
ceremonial ribbon and the PCC
Herald Trumpeters will perform.
Additionally, there will be a
demonstration on the operation of
digital cameras and the presenta¬
tion of a digital movie created by a
PCC faculty member.
A thena Stamos/Courier
Johari DeWitt-Rogers assists two students in the
new Technology Training Center, located in LL1 18.