The Starbucks on Studebaker and Alondra, across the street from Cerritos College, will be closing on May 29 for additional training.
It will be closed in the afternoon for racial bias training after events in Philadelphia caused debate.
The incident took place at a Starbucks in Philadelphia on April 12, when two black men were put in handcuffs for not leaving the store when asked by police.
The event was caught on camera and uploaded to the Internet for the world to see and many on social media called the event racist.
Starbucks responded by choosing to close 8,000 of it’s stores in the United State for racial bias training.
The manger of the Alondra and Studebaker Starbucks Tracy Brannies declined to comment on the matter and pointed to Starbucks’ corporate office for a response.
The two Philadelphia men arrested, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, spoke out for the first time over the weekend on ABC’s Good Morning America.
“It’s not just a black people thing, it’s a people thing.” said Nelson.
In the beginning of this event, the Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross defended the actions of the police.
On April 22, Ross changed his view and apologized for the incident and said “It is me who in large part made most of the situation worse than it was.
“So for that, it is my sincere apology to those two men, and even to these officers and to the other people around this city who I have failed in a variety of ways on this incident.”
Associated Student of Cerritos College President-elect, Kathy Azzam commented on the issue of Starbucks closing 8,000 of its stores including across the street.
“It’s a little tricky because it happened in Philadelphia, so you’d assume that’s the one that needs [racial bias] training, but as a company I believe all of them should go through it, because you’ll never know when the next case will happen.
“What if this happens again? So I think its important. As an educator we always go to training no matter what.” she said.
She expressed that they might be losing business but the bigger outcome is that they will be learning.
Another student leader from ASCC commented on the issue, 2018-2019 Student Trustee Philip Herrera, also a former Starbucks’ employee.
Herrera asked the question, “Does it end with Starbucks or does this mean that we have more training for more food service companies across the country?
“Was it right for a company to make such a drastic decision based on one individual’s action? I think it’s a step in the right direction.” he said.
