"Douse yourself in gasoline and set yourself on fire," he wrote (Quintessential Episodes in Trump's America)

Professor Olga Perez Stable Cox

OCC Trumpsters/GOP

A professor called Trump’s election an ‘act of terrorism.’ Then she became the victim of terror. (Washington Post; Dec 27)

     “Now, at 66, I’m paranoid,” [targeted instructor] Cox said. “It doesn’t feel good at all to be looking over my shoulder and wondering when an unfamiliar car pulls up across the street whether they’re going to take a picture of me or something worse — but that’s my life now. I feel like I’ve been attacked by a mob of people all across the country,” she added. “If they’re telling me over and over again that they want to shoot me in the face, how am I supposed to know if they’re going to do it or not?”

. . .

     Cox’s comments were recorded by a conservative student in her class who found her statements offensive and decided to share the video with the Orange Coast College Republicans, according to Joshua Recalde-Martinez, a political science major and president of the campus Republican group.

. . .

     “Go out in the middle of the football field, pull out a handgun, put it to your temple and shoot yourself,” Jim Ernst wrote [to Cox]. “Or better yet, douse yourself in gasoline and set yourself on fire.”

. . .

     The harassment crested when Cox received an email from a man named Tim White that showed her home address, phone number and salary and threatened to spread the information “everywhere.” The email referred to Cox as a “libtard, Marxist, hatemonger, nutcase.” It was then, Cox said, that she could no longer stand to be in her home and decided to flee.

     The professor turned her final week of class this semester over to a substitute, but Cox said her ordeal continued after the controversial video appeared on the O’Reilly Factor. The host referred to her statements as “gibberish” and “slander” and labeled the professor part of “the totalitarian left.”

     “That woman needs a psychologist,” he said.

. . .

     The Orange Coast College Republicans have filed a formal complaint with the school and hired an attorney, said Shawn Steel, a former chairman of the California Republican Party.

     Steel told the Orange County Register that Cox is using her power as a grade-determining instructor to “basically scare and shame students.”

     “It’s alarming,” he said. “It’s scaremongering. It’s irrational. It’s a rant. And it doesn’t belong in the classroom.”

. . .

     [Cox's] name has been added to a controversial website called “Professor Watchlist,” which lists the names of about 200 academics across the country accused by a conservative group of advancing “leftist propaganda” and discriminating “against conservative students.”

     “This is a very carefully planned plot to attack college professors that they don’t like and disagree with,” she said. “This is being done all around the country. It’s not my fault, and I didn’t do anything wrong.”

     Rob Schneiderman, president of the Coast Federation of Educators/American Federation of Teachers Local 1911 that represents Cox, agrees that the problem is not what Cox said, but the fact that she was recorded, a violation of the student code of conduct that was expressly stated in the professor’s syllabus. Schneiderman said the short, edited clip fails to provide viewers with any context for Cox’s statements and could warrant punishment.

     “She’s known as an open teacher,” he said. “There’s a petition going around on campus to nominate her for teacher of the year. She’s very well respected on campus, and this was an absolute violation.”

     Schneiderman said the union plans to work with school officials to strengthen its free speech policies to keep students and professors safe from “Gestapo tactics.” Many professors on campus, he said, have vowed to resist any attempts by the campus Republicans to dictate classroom discourse.

. . .

     “My parents left Cuba so we would not have this kind of harassment and so we would have access to free education,” [Cox] said. “They made sacrifices to bring us here, and I’m proud to be an American.”

     “It’s just hard to believe that this is happening to me,” she added, “and if this is what America is turning into, we all need to be afraid.”

* * * 

Cox

Demonstrators rally for and against OCC professor seen on video lamenting Trump victory (LA Times);
3 local professors are on website list of those who 'advance leftist propaganda' (LA Times)
OCC should fire bully professor (OC Register)
Don't Smile (You're on Camera) (Inside Higher Ed)
Orange Coast College Student Threatened With Expulsion After Recording Professor’s Anti-Trump Tirade (CBS/LA)

Steel

SEE ALSO:

The YAF brouhaha: righties flip out, leaving slime and worse (DtB)

ANOTHER ODIOUS DONALD:

Donald Wagner being sworn in as Mayor of the City of Irvine (Dec. 13)

Advice for the President Elect

It’s like Trumpville around here

            For quite some time now, I’ve been very busy caring for my parents, who are elderly and, well, hard to care for. I’ve been preoccupied even. Outta touch.

            Still, I hear things, see things.

            I hear that the permanent VPI hire here at IVC will wrap up soon. Will Chris McDonald (acting VPI) get the job, despite his lack of experience? The way hires go around here, anything’s possible.

Persistent hinkitude, man. It’s like Trumpville around here. They do what they want. The rules mean nothing.

            I’m sure you’ve all heard about that instructor at OCC who opined negatively about Mr. Trump (how could she not?). A student secretly taped that and created a video that went viral. The Loutisphere went apeshit like it does.

YAF poster

            A few months ago, a similar episode occurred down at Saddleback College, when an instructor, appealing to board policy (created by our right-wing board that was miffed by all that student free speechifyin’), ripped down some unauthorized, and arguably inappropriate, 911 posters. Naturally, the local YAF louts videoed that and, natch, the context-less video went viral among the rabid and stupid right-wingers of America. Soon, Saddleback’s Facebook page was full of the usual rude, violent, and clueless remarks. "Libtard," "c*nt," etc.

            Natch, Saddleback threw that instructor under the bus, leaving those remarks for all to read, inviting the key YAF kid to say the pledge at the 911 event, and so on. We did what we could to support the instructor here at DtB. We got the union on the case too, though that yielded the usual nada. Way to go, FA. The contract isn’t everything, you know.

            On Thursday, the IVC Academic Senate (the Senate represents faculty concerning academic matters) acted to support that instructor and the efforts of the OCC Academic Senate—they didn’t throw their instructor under any bus—to defend Academic Freedom/1^st Amendment rights. I’m happy to say that that went down without controversy.

            I’m feeling so oddly patriotic these days, especially after Nov. 8. I feel the need to express my special neopatriotism.

            I put up a Canadian flag outside my office in the new Liberal Arts Building. (I was born in Canada, you know.) A big maple leaf.

            Then a Mexican flag. Yep. It’s big.

            Yesterday, Rebel Girl got me a Peace flag as a X-mas present. Maybe I’ll put that up too. Will it piss anyone off? Sure hope so. Glenn doesn't like anything edgy. Anything, um, collegiate. 

            That reminds me! Tell us what you know about the “investigations” that seem to be going on at the colleges these days. C’mon. Spill some beans why doncha?

            And Roquemore just got a new three-year contract.

            Yep, just like Trumpville.

While threats continue, the "White Genocide Project" writes to OCC faculty

Photo by Jeff Gritchen, OC Register. 

from the Register:

Police look into threats against OCC professor who made anti-Trump remarks
excerpt:

Rob Schneiderman, president of the faculty union, shared some of the latest e-mails Cox has received, including: “People are watching you and your family beware the night cometh.” Another: “Go out in the middle of the football field, pull out a handgun, put it to your temple and shoot yourself. Or better yet, douse yourself in gasoline and set yourself on fire.”
...
Meanwhile, some colleagues at the Costa Mesa campus have said they too are getting angry emails, including from one group called the “White Genocide Project” that asked faculty members to “urge your students to help President Trump fight white genocide. ... Diversity is a code word for white genocide.”

Meanwhile at CSULB...

Ho ho ho.

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"...we’ll put a (expletive) bullet in your face”

OCC students and faculty rally today. Photo by Jeff Gritchen, OC Register

from the Register:

OCC teacher received threats, left the state after video of her anti-Trump comments

excerpt:

An Orange Coast College teacher who told her students that Donald Trump’s election was an “act of terrorism” has received threats and has temporarily left the state.

News of the threats against Olga Perez Stable Cox came to light Monday, as hundreds of people turned out at the college to protest for and against her.

The professor, the union that represents her, and the college have received more than 1,000 emails, calls and Facebook comments – most critical of Cox, who a week after the election was recorded on video telling students in her human sexuality class that “we’re really back to being (in) a civil war.”

“Someone emailed her a picture of her house, with her address,” said Rob Schneiderman, president of the Coast Federation of Educators, AFT 1911. The email called her a “libtard, Marxist, hatemonger, nutcase” and said “her home address is now going to be sent everywhere,” he added.

Others threatened her livelihood, some her life.

“You want communism, go to Cuba ... try to bring it to America and we’ll put a (expletive) bullet in your face,” read another email to her....

OCC college president, faculty union and academic senate take a stand:

Coast Report Online:
Supporters and detractors square off over controversial OCC professor
Los Angeles Times/Daily Pilot:
Demonstrators rally for and against OCC professor seen on video lamenting Trump victory


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Our national JACKASS

Ignoramus with stunningly ignorant supporters

• Former Acting CIA Director Calls Russian Interference In  Election ‘The Political Equivalent Of 9/11’ (Huff Post)

• Trump is antagonizing the intelligence community, and that’s a problem (Wash Post)

• Trump Remains Unpopular; Voters Prefer Obama on SCOTUS Pick (Public Policy Polling)

OCC professor makes Professor WatchList directory, meanwhile at Notre Dame...

Photo from Professor WatchList website

Here is the entry from the Professor WatchList website:

Olga Perez Stable Cox
Olga Perez Stable Cox is an instructor at Orange Coast College. She used class time to call the election of Donald Trump "an act of terrorism" and also called him a white supremacist and also said Vice-President Mike Pence is "anti-gay".

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/socal-professor-uses-class-time-to-call-trump-election_us_58486e59e4b08f092ddd98be

The OCC newspaper, Coast Report Online, has this update:

Rally organizers allege filming of professor was premeditated

excerpt:

Organizers for a rally in support of an Orange Coast College professor recently recorded making controversial anti-Trump statements during her class are alleging the recording was premeditated by the college’s Republicans Club.
...
Elias Altamirano, a 21-year-old English major, said he attended a [OCC Republican] club meeting on Nov. 15 where he allegedly witnessed the planning of filming professors. According to Altamirano, Recalde-Martinez brought up the idea of recording OCC teachers potentially making negative comments about Trump when another club member volunteered to take part.

“He was sure he would be able to obtain a video of a professor,” Altamirano said.

“Everyone agreed and was just laughing. They seemed like kids who were just excited to play a game that they had just invented.”

Altamirano said that in the same meeting Recalde-Martinez said he knew a conservative lawyer, Shawn Steel, that could help them. Steel issued a formal complaint against Cox on Nov. 30 to OCC on behalf of the club asking for Cox’s resignation.

 Meanwhile at Notre Dame (via the Washington Post):

A twist on controversial ‘Professor Watchlist’: Notre Dame academics want their names added

excerpt:

While most teachers at any level education would generally prefer to remain off politically motivated lists, more than 100 faculty members at the University of Notre Dame say they want their names added to Professor Watchlist, a project of the nonprofit organization Turning Point USA. The group’s website says it is a national movement that seeks to “educate students about the importance of fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets.” Critics call it an assault on academic freedom.

 The watch list includes two academics from Notre Dame. One is philosophy professor Gary Gutting, who is on the list, according to the watch list website, because he wrote that the country’s “permissive gun laws are a manifestation of racism.” That came from a 2015 analysis about gun laws that Gutting wrote for the New York Times. The other is Iris Outlaw, director of Multicultural Student Programs and Services at the Catholic university. She is on the list, the website says, because she “taught a ‘white privilege’ seminar that pledged to help students acknowledge and understand their white privilege.”

The Notre Dame faculty members who signed the open letter said the people now on the list are, actually, “the sort of company we wish to keep.”

*

Rally on Monday at OCC

From the Coast Report Online, Orange Cost College's newspaper:

Rally in support of professor planned for Monday

excerpt:

In an effort to stand in solidarity with an Orange Coast College professor who has been chastised after her controversial comments regarding President-elect Donald Trump made national headlines, a public rally to show support will be held Monday at noon in the college’s Free Speech Zone....According to union president Rob Scheiderman, Cox is well respected and works hard to create an environment that encourages dialogue. Additionally, the video posted on social media was made in her classroom in apparent violation of state law, district policy and Cox’s own class syllabis, the letter said. It isn’t clear who recorded Cox during the lecture. The rally, which will be held in the campus’ Free Speech Zone, is the first public showing of support for Cox who has been with OCC for more than 30 years. According to Hodge, both students and faculty want to stand in solidarity with Cox and will be attending the event at around noon on Monday...

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Free Speech or Indoctrination or a "teaching moment"?

Meanwhile at OCC...

The Register reports: Caught on video: Trump's election was an 'act of terrorism,' says Orange Coast College instructor in class

excerpt: 

In a video clip recorded by a student, a psychology instructor at Orange Coast College told her class that the election of Donald Trump was “an act of terrorism” – prompting an official complaint from the school’s Republican Club.

Olga Perez Stable Cox told students in her popular human sexuality class shortly after the election: “We have been assaulted.”

...The union that represents Cox defended her and said any students involved in the recording violated school and state codes and could be punished. Meanwhile, some Orange Coast College students and their supporters called it a blatant example of liberal bias on American campuses.

At at the end of the videotaped exchange, one student turns around and asks another, presumably the one doing the taping, "When does the marijuana proposition come into effect?" The student answers, "We can smoke now. " The tape ends. The Washington Post has a version with subtitles - see below.

Washington Post: Watch professor make post-election political speech

OC's KKK leader busted in North Carolina

Hagen, aka Quigg, brusied and booked in North Carolina

The OC Weekly's Matt Coker broke this story which has now been picked up by the LA Times, NY Times, etc.  Let's go with Matt:

OC Klan Grand Dragon William Ernest Hagen Held in North Carolina Stabbing
excerpt:

Orange County's Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon, who was roughed up by counter-protesters during a February KKK rally in Anaheim, is now sitting in a North Carolina jail after being arrested for allegedly stabbing and beating another man at a Klan meeting...Hagen was arrested on suspicion of felony assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury,...The bust came the night before Barker's Loyal White Knights were scheduled to hold a morning "Trump victory parade" in nearby Pelham, but the KKK never showed. ...

Hagen falls flat in Anaheim's Pierson Park parking lot last February. (photo by Eric Hood.)

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This Day in IVC history: The Liberal Arts building 12/5/2014

Faculty, staff and administrators smile for the camera. 

Autographs and more! "Give me bookshelves or give me death!"

"Future home of Women's Studies." 

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Sammy Lee dies at 96

Dr. Sammy Lee, Olympic gold medal-winning diver and coach to Greg Louganis, dies at 96
(OC Reg)

     ...Dr. Sammy Lee, a noted physician who broke down racial barriers by becoming the first Asian American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States, has died of complications from pneumonia.
. . .
     He was 96.
. . .
     The Huntington Beach resident was born in Fresno in 1920 to Korean immigrant parents.
     Lee won Olympic gold for the U.S. in London in 1948 and successfully defended his 10-meter diving Olympic title in Helsinki in 1952. He later coached some of the United States’ best Olympic divers, including Greg Louganis, Bob Webster and Pat McCormick.
     Olympic champion Louganis said Lee influenced his career at an important time.
     “He taught me at a very early age the responsibility of being (an) ambassador to not only my sport of diving but to the world,” Louganis said in a statement. “I was only 16 at my first Olympics with him as my coach.”
     McCormick, a four-time Olympic gold medalist diver who represented the U.S. alongside Lee in the 1952 Olympics, previously told the Register that Lee was one of his idols growing up.
     “He’s so loved in (the swimming) community,” McCormick said.
     Lee graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School, attained a bachelor’s degree from Occidental College and got a medical degree from USC. He had his own practice as an ear, nose and throat specialist in Santa Ana for many years.
     He also served in the Army for 13 years, retiring as a major.
. . .
     As a Korean American, Lee had to overcome racism many times in his career and personal life.
     “When he was growing up, his professors and teachers told him he should just be content working at his parent’s chop suey house,” Lee II recalled. “He would get angry, but he would get angry to do something about it to where he would better himself.”
     Lee was student body president at his high school but had to get special permission to swim in Pasadena’s public pool on senior day, his son said. And when he went to buy his first home in Garden Grove in the 1950s, he twice was turned down because of his race.
. . .
     “I tell the kids today that if you got the fighting instinct in you, you can overcome prejudice,” Lee said. “You show people with your performance, not just words.”
     Until recently, Lee swam almost daily at the Los Caballeros Racquet and Sports Club in Fountain Valley.
. . .

London, 1948

     “The sport has lost one of its founding fathers,” [coach of the Crown Valley Divers club, Kurt] Wilson said from a diving meet in Irvine. “He dove through prejudice. I remember him telling me a story one time where he could dive on a Tuesday because they were going to drain the pool on Wednesday because people wouldn’t dive in the pool after he dove in the pool. ... He had a lot of adversity against him (but) never let that affect his willingness to work harder than anybody.”
. . .
     In May 2009, Lee became the 11th recipient of a star on the Anaheim/OC Walk of Stars. His star is on Harbor Boulevard, just south of the entrance to Disneyland.
     Along with his dad’s professional achievements, Lee II hopes his father will be remembered for his work ethic and for his open-mindedness.
     “He didn’t care about anyone’s race, religion, ethnicity or sexual preference,” Lee II said. “If you look at his divers, it was really a multination people he helped.”….

From a Dissent the Blog post (Deceived by cats...) in 2009:


A couple of days ago, our pal Gustavo Arellano of the OC Weekly (Lee-ving out crucial OC civil rights history in the Anaheim walk of stars) reported an incident that many would rather forget:

Legendary Olympian and longtime Orange County resident Sammy Lee was honored two days ago with a spot on the Anaheim Walk of Stars, and it was fascinating to see history in action…. The story in the Orange County Register mentioned his back-to-back gold medals in platform diving during the 1948 and 1952 Olympics, and that he served for years afterward as a coach. But it didn't even hint at Lee's involvement in one of the uglier moments in Orange County history.

In 1954, Lee—an Army vet, licensed doctor, two-time gold-medal winner and recent recipient of the Sullivan Award as the best amateur athlete in the United States—tried to buy a house in Garden Grove but was refused. Twice. All because he was Asian. Garbage Grove's racism was condemned worldwide for the obvious reasons, and even Ed Sullivan and then-veep Richard Nixon spoke publicly in favor of Lee, who eventually did buy a home…. His struggle to buy a house was an important step in the battle to end housing segregation in Orange County that ultimately culminated in the Mulkey v. Reitman Supreme Court case.

About 8 or 9 years after the unfortunate “Garden Grove” episode, my mother took Annie and me to swim classes at a place, if I recall correctly, near Collins and Tustin in the City of Orange. My memory tells me that it was a “Sammy Lee” facility. I seem to recall seeing his name emblazoned (in cursive) on the outside wall of the building. I’ll see if I can find evidence that my memory is correct.

See also biography and video of Sammy Lee

P.P.S.:

I found this at OC History Roundup:

Today's photo shows U.S. Olympic divers Sammy Lee and Vicki Manolo Draves at the London Olympic Games in August 1948. Dr. Lee won a gold medal that year, and again in 1952 at Helsinki. But much of Orange County knows him as the man who taught them how to swim. Lee's swim school was a fixture in Anaheim for many years, beginning in the 1950s. Today, he received the 11th star on the Anaheim/OC Walk of Stars, in front of Disneyland....

I also found a reference to one of Lee's schools in Santa Ana.

Orange: across the street from Sammy's business, c. 1962