The Siege

First Step – Taking Notice

Yeah, that’s right. “You’re just a student” is not only insulting to you, but more importantly, such sentiments betray an attitude, especially if coming from someone in a position of power, which can seriously undermine your rightful opportunities to fully participate in the college experience. You need to take note.

Depending on the situation, “You’re just a student” can really mean any and/or all of the following:

1) You’re just a child who should know his/her place, which is to politely and obediently comply with our commands.

2) I am unwilling to show you the respect that I would give to another adult.

3) You don’t really know anything, but we do.

4) Okay, maybe you know a few things, but not nearly as much as we do. Just keep quiet, listen and learn.

5) Let us adults handle the really important issues. Run along and play now.

6) You’ll have to ask our permission if you want to do that.

7) You’re unqualified to challenge us since we are the authorities and you certainly are not.

8) You are fragile and might break if we treat you like an adult.

9) We can easily manipulate you. You won’t even notice that we did it.

10) You are too immature to talk about certain things, like sex, for example.

11) We can make rules up on the spot. Who’s going to know the difference, you? Ha, ha, ha, ha…

12) Why don’t you just wait until you get out of school to ask those kinds of questions? Hmmm? Now go away.

13) We’re not really going to give you the tools to be fully-empowered now. Are you kidding? What, you think we want 30,000 students who know and assert their rights on our campus. As if!

SMC has a BIG PROBLEM

JUNE 6 UPDATE: Today, The Siege had a wonderful meeting with Dean Judith Penchansky (SMC Disciplinarian) and student Nehasi Lee in response to a false police report that described me as a “disruptive student” at the May 18 event detailed below.

The dean and I had a frank and honest exchange of ideas regarding my encounters with SMC’s police and her office’s duty to follow-up on any complaint lodged by any SMC staff against a student. She came across as reasonable, a good listener and ultimately acknowledged there was nothing for her office to take action over. Hopefully, as a responsible member of the SMC administration, she will relay to others in a position to care and take action, the concerns expressed about pervasive police misconduct at the college.

NEWS: Truly there are many officers of the law, everywhere, who operate day after day as heroes and defenders of the people, protecting our civil and constitutional rights and liberties. They deserve our continual thanks and appreciation for standing between us and the lawless chaos which would ensue without them. This author, on many occasions, has had reason to express appreciation for an officer’s help, especially those from the Los Angeles Police Department.

But there are others who, putting on a badge, believe themselves to be set apart to bully and abuse (click to witness SMC cops in action), at their pleasure, the very citizens they’ve sworn to protect. Usually this bullying happens to those who remain the most unempowered, either by economic class or by education. Students fit in here perfectly. It’s this small percentage of badge-wearers, committing crimes under the color of authority, who deserve our profound contempt and need to be held accountable under the law.

There. Are you happy? That’s the new name for this site.

A certain minority of well-meaning, but seemingly non-confrontational types have volunteered some reservations about the name of this news magazine – The Siege. The rationale is that the current title is too in-your-face, too incendiary, too inclined to raise the hackles of those who believe that calm, diplomatic discourse is always the best way. If the name isn’t nice, then some people won’t play.

The Siege, by the way, didn’t ask for the advice. People with greater insight just offered it, to help.

How to Ignore the Brown Act When No One is Watching

The perp-walks we witness by politicians who’ve breached our nation’s laws and the public trust are the politicos’ comeuppance for habits usually beginning way back when. But where and how could such misbegotten behaviors have started you might wonder?

Well, step right up to a possible breeding ground right here at SMC where under the challenged guidance of Assistant Dean of Student Life Deyna Hearn and Student Activities Advisor Benny Blaydes (both of whose next link up the chain of command is Dr. Robert “Bobbie” Adams, vice-president of student affairs), the so-called “leadership” of Associated Student President Sadia Afolabi and Vice-President Jeff Jensen, plus that of other directors, has ill-served the SMC student body by undermining their rights through consistent violations of the Ralph A. Brown Act.

30,000-plus students and a turnout of a mere 407 voters for the recent Associated Student board of directors elections is an incredible indictment of the failure of the Office of Student Life - its advisors and the current board of directors - to establish their relevancy to the vast majority of students who attend Santa Monica College.

Go ahead and click here to play a nice video editorial
(just the beginning) on where this travesty begins and where the responsibility lies.

Much more to come…

In 1984, Paramount released the movie “Footloose,” the story of Ren McCormack (Kevin Bacon), a streetsmart teenager from the big city whose family moves to Bomont, an earnest little Oklahoma town, whose elders years earlier had banned any kind of public dancing. Under the inspired leadership of Ren in challenging the statute, his peers rise up and assert their right to dance. Bomont is an apt metaphor for SMC now - before the arrival of Ren.