An event surrounding the status of girls and women of color started as such, but by the end of the night, many people were talking about an issue that was closer to home than expected.
The Public Input Hearing: Status of Girls and Women of Color was held in the student center on Wednesday, Dec. 2.
After initial statements were presented by the event leaders, the floor was open to the public and that is where Political Science Professor Dennis Falcon took the stage.
Falcon stated that while everything the board members were saying sounded great, he was disappointed because there have been multiple accounts of discrimination against minorities in the handling of Cerritos staff members.
“Over the last two years I started talking to faculty and staff… what I ended up finding out was it’s not just me,” Falcon said.
“Latino/Mexican faculty and staff, African-American faculty and staff, even some people who are disabled, and a person who is gay on campus has been targeted for what we call discriminatory treatment.
“At a certain point we just decided to call it what it is, we’re being targeted,” he added.
Dr. Jose Fierro seemed blindsided by Falcon’s comments. Yet he did admit he felt the school was doing a “great job” as majority of the board are minorities.
Fierro said, “I’m not really sure what he’s referring to.”
“This is the first we’re hearing about it,” Board President Carmen Avalos interrupted.
Both Fierro and Avalos left the event 30 minutes prior to its conclusion.
However, Avalos insisted it was her children as to why she had to leave early. She also added the event started 30 minutes later than scheduled.
Avalos had no problem expressing her view on the timeliness of the tirade.
“On any campus there’s going to be issues, period. I think the way that it was expressed could have been expressed at the board meeting,” Avalos said.
“I don’t think this was the forum to have done that, but it was bigger audience.”
She continued to get more animated as the conversation went on.
“What is Cristina [Garcia] going to do? We’re the policy makers, right?” Avalos questioned.
“When you express it in that matter it’s disrespectful to the board because we don’t have the opportunity to address it,” she added. “But people do things for different political reasons, he did say he was political science teacher right?”
Kurratul-ayn Uraizee who was one of the 55 speakers on the night shared her opinion on the matter.
“I feel like they’re really trying to do something, but it’s like they have so many issues to deal with,” Uraizee said. “But I feel like something should be done.”
Cristina Garcia, who was the emcee for the evening and assembly member from the 58th district, weighed in on the topic.
“I can’t speak specifically on what’s going on on this campus, but I think he’s bringing up a point that’s very true among all of our campuses,” she said.
Falcon made it clear that he wanted his point heard.
He stated, “We need to fight back, but the only problem was the policy and procedures on campus for reporting things like that they have things like time frames. You have to report it in 30 days.
“And then on top of that the people that you report it to are actually people who work for the college and will do everything they can to cover up these things,” he said. “I have dozens of people who I can name and who will come out in public when the time comes.”
Falcon said that he has two members on board, but refused to give names.
He offered a solution for the problem.
“First, admit you have one [problem]. Cerritos College does not want to admit [it has] a problem. [Faculty] want to talk about all these other programs, but they’re looking over their own backyard,” he said. “Before you try and fix somebody else’s problem you solve the problem in your own backyard.”
