(juris doctor tom duffy spoke with me today about my previous writing which represented my feeling that the faculty and administration were collusive in protecting the ASO harassment of sheila dharod and the ASO drinking/minor harassment scandal cover-up. wisely, he is concerned that the blogosphere may be permanent history, or damaging. it was not my intent to implicate him per se in the cover-up, but rather to beg for his support, as he of all people could see the travesty of justice which played out in the vicious attacks against paralegal student sheila dharod. when i suggested that the faculty are too scared to lose their salary in speaking out against LACC corruption, it was my guess. i'm not sure what is stopping them. in fact i suggest they all demand a better future for the school and more consderation given towards PR nightmares and reparations for the grievous assault on our dignity that has been waged by harassing professors or students in violation of state and federal equality in education code. i am really honored that dr duffy is reading my blog, even if it conveys so much pain and sorrow and emotion.)
dear dr duffy,
thank you for taking the time to speak with me. i am so honored.
i feel that watching the cruelty towards sheila has detracted from my studies.
if i did not want credit and my pell grants, i would drop out to protest the school's failure to ensure a learning atmosphere free from harassment.
i am worried about the minor who was allegedly harassed and fed alcohol on the school trip.
while surely it could have been worse, why does sheila get punished for existing and showing a light on this?
the danger with the blogosphere is that anyone can say anything.
i was threatened with suspension regarding the grotesque language i reported in anthropology.
i think someone needs to boldly defend sheila and restore her good name.
but after her name was attacked in the election week, her address exposed on the public documents . . . who can rewind time?
in the future, i think courageous leadership will involve faculty members unafraid to stand up for unfairly targeted students. that is what i meant to say.
vargas was dismissive with me as well caling it "inappropriate" that i attempted to get an opinion from the legal association regarding this lack of ethics which seems to permeate the school.
i was very strengthened by your presence at the so-called impeachment trial. i wished vargas, you, peters, bradford, and moore all put your fist down and said:
this is unacceptable, this will not go on on a tax-funded property under the edu code, this is a publicity nightmare for the school.
regarding the alcohol abuse and harassment: the school should have issued a definitive stmt against any harassment of minors or attempts to intoxicate them. anyone involved in the coverup should be reprimanded. it seems everyone is involved in the cover-up.
to me the blogosphere is about taking power. if LACC neglects scandals or has sloppiness anywhere in the game, it may result in such fiascos as the Lopez case or my blog.
as for you personally, i am very overwhelmed by the academic excellence you offer.
my cultural distaste for any and all epithets or unequal treatment of women extends to all my classes.
if only i could tell my teacher sister mary david what i have heard in the classroom at LACC. she would roll over in her grave.
because i do not like any references to women's weight (eating bon-bons and gaining 100lbs), or any old cliches of marriage power dynamics, or such words as "cheesecake" used in reference to women, i made a report.
while these were by far the least extreme offenses, the systemic pattern of abuse pervaded almost every class.
can you believe that the social sciences chair eckford cornered me in a meeting to tell me that the words bitch and tits and ass and shitty and asshole are words protected by his notion of academic freedom?
but that my online writing had to stop bc it is inappropriate. and that he would suspend me if i continued to report what was said in the classroom and how it made me feel?
he then told keith fink, a lawyer and teacher acting on my behalf, to go jump in a pool and that he would "hang up on your dumb ass."
this kind of lack of professionalism i find quite disturbing.
a teacher (bartelt)
wrote me this:
"Finally, before you make a mountain out of a mole-hill, perhaps you need to revisit the entomology of the word "tit." It derives from teat, meaning nipple, and can be pronounced as tit or teet. Both men and women have them, as do the cows on the farm on which I grew up."
this is so disgusting!!! who would write this to anyone for any reason?
i hope lewis is doing better, but taking his media law class was so bizarre.
some of my old profs asked us to call them by their first name and i am sorry for the excessive familiarity.
similarly, i think we as women should not be jibed about for our weights or bodies even if it is meant affectionately. the term "cheesecake" is prior to our era of slang, but it is my interpretation that it is an objectifying materialistic word. my point that it would be safer and more respectful not to speak such way of women, i hope can be taken calmly to heart.
school has felt like a battle ground since experiencing lewis's excessive preoccupation with prostitution and "hookers." i informed him that in the international community this is known as sex work, so as not to criminalize the people who may be victimized themselves by human trafficking, theft, rape, other violence. he treated the class like a joke.
lanzer made a really cruel joke about calling a student a "slut" and snickered as he disguised it as an explanation of the concept of defamation. other women were uncomfortable.
i prize everything i have learned at school, but hope so much more for the students of the future.
you dedicate so much time to class and giving such good lecture, i can see how the wranglings of admin or student problems might be beyond the scope.
i am very sorry for saying "duffy." if there is a way i could clear up the meaning of my blog, or euphemize my meaning, i will, though i am so tired and have more exams to study for.
at portland state university i will take business ethics, environmental ethics, environmental policy, environmental restoration, and american courts this summer. i am moving on tuesday the 8th.
i have time thursday afternoon to talk or friday or saturday.
i could bring my computer to discuss what has been written and what could be done. i could try to search for the relevant passages.
what is so interesting about the ratemyprofessors.com world is the anonymizing feature, and the monetizing through ad revenue. they literally commodify the educational experience. of course anyone could say anything, except they do censor words out like "sexist."
in terms of the permanence of the blogosphere, all businesses and schools must operate as though everything said or done may be blogged and they have to be prepared to deal with instant PR, good or bad.
i think LACC is a little slow on the draw on this account.
if they cared about minimizing bad press, they would stop the scandal before it gets huge.
sadly, i feel like i am the bringer of bad news. but it is actually great news for students. if we could become empowered, we could stand up for the civil rights movements of the future which will upend male dominated business structures, government, etc.
the meaning of total transparency for the future of the internet means nothing is off the record.
in a way, i almost think of this as an installation piece of performance of an idea. that blogging will happen, and it will spawn revolutions just as much as luther's theses or the declaration of independence.
if young people use their education to become self-empowered, i think the learning process will be more interactive.
i am sorry whatever my statements were were a poor representation of the situation as you see it and i am so glad you draw this to my attention. i think the concept of the natural leader is apropos here.
that in a sense it takes courage and risk to step out of the realm of the "appropriate" into a place where one might risk reprimand or censure to speak out for truth. the fact is that we students, jerome, sheila, and i are pouring our hearts into making this school a better safer place with less corruption. and we receive next to nothing.
the pell grant doesn't go far towards the outrageous rents in LA and to come to school and be cursed at by some angry foul-mouthed professor, is so disillusioning. or to see a woman savaged by some student government power grabbers.
i think the fact that we are working so hard for nothing speaks to the calling for any administrator or teacher--under a doctrine of respondeat superior, to realize that any cover up of misconduct or harassment or discrimination will ultimately damage the school.
if you would like to interview for some real expose journalism---or the long book version---i bet you know so much. i have found some old stories of teachers using security to arrest students for their political beliefs in the nineties.
i think in the era of modern day school massacres, it is paramount for every member of the faculty to de-escalate conflict, verbal abuse, bullying, name-calling, and harassment.
teachers may not realize the severity of the angst they provoke by employing sexism etc or by protecting abuse. i would hope it would never come to this, but the admin owes the school a sense of safety. safety is imperiled by inflaming passions and allowing bully language to be hurled at women or in personal attacks against anyone.
please feel free to call me, or write, and i wish that we had a coalition of voices in support of sheila, and that it did not rest on the backs of we few starving students.
the anxiety i have felt attending LACC and hearing epithets towards women, or sheila, has caused me such grief and distraction, i was pushed to a dark depression and many tears and i almost dropped this term.
in 2009 when i reported what i considered to be an egregious pattern of abuse, i expected that lanzer and lewis were trying to be fired. i was in my mind expecting a kind of utopia, where everyone was treated fairly, and any sexism was immediately rooted out. passman really has impressed me with her do-nothing attitude.
i am so sorry for all of us.
if there is anything you could do in sheila's defense, or in defense against the coercive politics of the social sciences department, or to inspire professional accountability, that might be nice to help LACC stay out of trouble in the future.
thanks for taking the time to speak to me.
if you would like me to work on more social media PR for the the school that would be an interesting position especially if it were paid.
it would be nice if the school recognized the importance of equality (and PR) as a proactive concept, not a damage control post facto problem.
it would be nice if the school had a proactive ministry of equality to reach out give seminars and educate students and professors about avoiding litigation, character damage, bad publicity etc.
also here is the link to my blogged notes.
mary eng
i think i will publish this long letter.
here is something i reprinted from another student, nick ?:
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