the federal office of civil rights etc.

can't wait to mail this off and hand deliver a few . . . so much time and money at kinkos!
maybe i should send one to the LA county bar.

i think the student press law club should get a copy too . . .
maybe even bet tzedek, the legal group who represent holocaust survivors in LA . . .

5-9-10

Dear Office of Civil Rights, Gene Little, Jamillah Moore, Cristy Passman, Lawrence Bradford, ABA standard committee on paralegals, and LACC Collegian.

RE: Los Angeles City College Harassment

Thank you for looking over my reports.  I am dismayed that the incidents of harassment and hostile atmosphere towards women and minorities are so severe at LACC that i feel that i must complain to all of you.

I believe paralegal student Sheila Dharod's privacy has been breached in the circulation of ASO files to the public if they attended the LACC ASO meetings 5-4-10.

Her number and address are on the circulating "evidence" that was offerred to the public.

The word "Nazi" is used on the SCCC memo.  The ASO reproduction of this memo and recirculation of this memo (as evidence against Sheila), i consider embarrassing and offensive to holocaust survivors.

Many students spoke out against the defamation campaign waged to eliminate Sheila Dharod from student government after she exposed ASO members drinking, for calling out President James Butler-Zetino's attempt to seduce a an underage woman who he fed drinks at the SCCC affair, and for calling out ASO on numerous procedural errors.

The underage woman is filing criminal charges against the current ASO president.

I was screamed at by ASO VP for finance Joseph Tolle under the election tent wed 4-28-10 at 6:30 pm, when i told him not to touch my shoulder.  He immediately lied to cover for himself, as he then did the next day to Earic Peters, saying that i screamed and touched him first, both untrue.

I made an incident report with the sheriff on campus.

Professor Bartelt of LACC  anthropology repeated the phrase "show your tits" twice 4-16-10, in class.  i politely asked him to speak more respectfully of breasts.  He said, "what? I don't know what you are talking about?"  and i said "well when you use the word tits . . ."  he then shouted "what? tits and ass?"

A few weeks before he made jokes about Margaret Thatcher being a man.  He also proclaimed a theory about transvestites showing women how to be real women, a comment which i find offensive both to transvestites, and to women.

He wrote me a very disgusting email defining the word "tit" 4-17-10 which i found to be both insulting to my intelligence, and harassing.

Richard Lewis in the paralegal department spoke profusely of hookers and prostitution repeatedly all semester spring 2009.  He also publicly harassed a woman of color, Talissa Love, humiliated her, and graded her poorly. She missed class to avoid the harassment.  She told me she was also harassed by her gym teacher.

Veteran Stephen Stapleton told me that Paralegal instructor Richard Lewis screamed at him in the courtyard.  Andrea Bari witnessed this.  Bari dropped his class with Richard Lewis because it is intolerably inane and offensive.  Andrea Bari started an Intellectual Property student club to make up for the huge deficit in the department offerings.  While Richard Lewis purportedly teaches "media law" he mainly talks about TV shows and makes sexual jokes.

My friend Eric Hamilton said his english teacher was sexist so he dropped the class.

ACLU campus club founder Lawrence Vasquez told me his teacher was saying negative things about "Mexicans."

Spring 2009, Kenneth Lanzer in the paralegal department spoke of "dumb woman," "horrible woman."  He said "if i told a sstudent she would make more money as a slut walking the streets at hollywood and vine, than as a paralegal, would that be an example of defamatory speech?"  He often bitterly references his divorce.

Two women students have been asked out by Lanzer, and one has dropped his class because of it.

I dropped my legal writing class with him because he makes me uncomfortable.

One of my classmates in 2009 told me there is a sociology professor who talks about male masturbation repeatedly, when i asked if they had similar experiences in class.

Professor Vargas in the paralegal program brought in a film to criminal law class with the words "whore" and "chink" and "spik" and "nigger."  I found this bizarre, as he is a very good teacher otherwise.  I complained, and he has had no following lapse of judgement.  He thanked me for my complaint.

Professor Duffy in the law department makes jokes about women being "cheesecakes" and about the wife who eats bon-bons all day and gains 100 pounds and tries to take her husband's fortune.   he also could not answer the legal question of property division in same sex marriages in the state of California during the brief window that these occurred, repeating the definition that "marriage is between a man and a woman." His tone was perceptibly stern with the gay male who helped follow up on my initial question, which followed the bon-bon comment in property law. He also joked that stdents could sit in eachother's laps if they were attractive enough.

Professor Cabellero, in Administration of Justice, makes repeatedly sexist statements.  I never reported this until this letter. He also seemed to unfairly target very young latina girls, and make them the subject of his internalized racism.

The large male anatomical graffiti in the women's room in Holmes Hall where most of the law classes occur, which reads "suck it bitch" and has been in the bathroom for over a year.

My reports:

1. the harassment and defamation of Sheila Dharod by the ASO as protected by Dean Peters, who told me the ASO does not assist discrimination complaints.  Invasion of privacy, use of the word "Nazi" in a joking manner.

2. the physical harassment and verbal harassment of ASO VP for finance Joseph Tolle, who lied to Peters.  Peters tried to tell me the physical component was not the important part of the incident report.  Tolle repeatedly touched me, as i pulled away he said "I'm sorry."  Then when he touched me again, and i told him not to, he screamed at me with many witnesses present.  I am scared to be around people like this with obvious anger issues.  I do not think he should be allowed to be near the ASO  building, because i do not feel safe there and he may have another outburst.  I saw him putting his hands on another ASO member/female student, whose character was being attacked for the excessive alcohol consumption which occurred on the ASO SCCC trip.

3. Cristy Passman's failure to take my claims seriously and attempts to prevent me access to the forms to make formal complaints, and her discouraging me from my right to send reports to Sacramento

4. Bathroom graffiti which is both sexist and pornographic

5. sexist and homophobic comments by law professor Tom Duffy

6. sexist epithets and shouting by Anthropology Professor Brian Bartelt

7. 2009 complaint regarding law professors Lewis, and Lanzer, the Vargas screening of an extremely violent and verbally epithetical film in criminal law, and Department Chair Tim Sweetman's protection of the abuse.

I am looking forward to meeting with President Jamillah Moore on May !4th at one p.m. She seemed truly horrified when i told her about the anxiety and grief i have experienced as a result of the poor academic quality at LACC and ubiquitous harassment.

She seemed dismayed that i have missed classes, tests, and dropped classes as a result of the abuse.  I told her the anxiety caused me appetite loss as well as depression.

i fear that immediate action from a high level and a lawsuit are the only things that will help out the carnival know as LACC.

I am dismayed that department chair Tim Sweetman and Ombudsman for Discrimination and harassment Cristy Passman are so protective of abuse.

My educator friends at other schools have told me this kind of activity would lead to immediate suspensions.

I have spent hours of grief documenting this abuse, discussing it with other students, and blogging it.  I feel the adverse effect to my educational experience to be an extreme violation of my guarantee of equality in education.

Eric Kim, LCC district counsel asked me to take down my blog, supposedly for intellectual property reasons.

i wish you all would do more to prevent future abuses and punish those who have abused the students of LACC.

Please feel free to call me.

I would like to spur the initiation of an Equality Coalition to address sexist, racist, and homophobic speech in the classroom and on campus.

Please protect future students and consider LACC worthy of your investigation.

Proactive measures are needed.

ABA bar certification should not proceed until quality control standards are met.

Initially, I was shocked that my teachers seemed so ignorant of modern day sexual harassment standards.  I felt that they were actively trying to get fired and retired.  Now that i see that this kind of abuse is widespread and protected on LACC campus, i feel very sorry that i have wasted so much of my energy at a paralegal program with so little self-respect and at a school that protects and in fact encourages verbal abuse.

Honorably,

Mary Eng

maryeng1@yahoo.com