Monday, December 10, 2018

"a great complacency"


Good evening. (Yes, she wrote it out and everything! It had to come in under two minutes. Thanks to her co-conspirators!)

I am Lisa Alvarez, professor of English at IVC.

Earlier this year, I became aware that I (along with another faculty member) was the target of letters filed by a former student which were disturbing and threatening. You have received copies of my letter. I expect that when you read it, you quickly recognized its worrisome contents.

I was not informed of this letter until weeks after the fact and faculty and staff, not just me, became alarmed, and not for the first time and not because of the existence of such troubled students, but because of the failure of our institution to act swiftly and prudently.

The administrative response was so disappointing that I reached out to an attorney to file a complaint which asked for, among other actions, the implementation of policies to ensure this does not happen again, the formation of a Threat Assessment Team and a review of IVC’s Title IX Office.

Like the board, I recently received a letter from the district’s lawyer regarding my attorney’s request.

The district’s lawyer offered a defensive response that, along with an incomplete and distorted presentation of events which erased my own advocacy’s role in the actions taken and failed to specify large gaps of time between actions, most importantly failed to address my core concerns which are NOT financial compensation, but campus safety and college leadership.

In times like these, colleges must reconsider their approach to protecting students, staff and faculty. In times like these, the times often called Me Too, the assessment of credible threats MUST include the perspective of the target, so often women, the threat assessors so often men.

Many at IVC sense a great complacency and failure to take seriously and respectfully our very real concerns about our safety. Instead our concerns are routinely diminished and dismissed.

The board has an opportunity to do what we at IVC sorely need – lead. We hope you do.

Thank you.



They don't care.

They can't.

The old punk says it the nature of the institutions: it institutionalizes even the best.

The old teacher says they'll change when someone gets hurt, really hurt.

The former student reminds us people forget what it was like to be afraid, so surrounded they by comfort and seasonal wish songs and stipends.

The former child who grew up in neighborhood where people didn't care about anything or anyone, never called the police no matter how much the beaten child or wife was screaming, looked past the cigarette burns on the thin skin of a girl's hand and the first black eye and the second and the third,  tried not to think about the gun in the closet or the knife in the glove box, she knows that people only take action when they themselves are threatened.  You can get them to to do the right thing but not for the right reasons. But often it's too late.

You want sorry? someone says. You'll never get that. They don't do that.

*

For the record, the board unanimously rejected Rebel Girl's attorney's complaint.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

"A great complacency." --Great title!

Anonymous said...

El Camino College has had its share of incidents lately and while their response has not been perfect, there seems to be open lines of communication and some kind of process. It does helpt rhat they have a newspaper.

https://eccunion.com/news/2018/09/17/el-camino-college-student-threatens-to-bring-a-gun-on-campus-police-say/


https://eccunion.com/news/2014/10/15/police-department-emails-campus-advisory-with-name-photo-of-student-who-made-threats/

Anonymous said...

Despite the official rejection of RG's complaint, (and she can always elect to pursue it), it seems to me there have been victories that suggest that despite the admin's unwillingness to admit wrongdoing or error (they so seldom do - such a poor examples for our students!) they know they blew it. There was that open forum on safety in October (Yes, Fontanella publicly chided Rebel Girl for being weak and not sucking it up...perhaps that approach is part of IVC's Title IX training? Humiliate people who speak out, especially when they are not in the room to respond?) and Glenn says he is putting together some new task force (Who is on it? Is it just the usual volunteer suspects who attend his holiday parties or have they actually actively recruited new people with expertise? How about Yemmy?). But take a look at Glenn's Opening Session during flex week - all campus safety and miles away from his fall opening session which was mostly (from what I hear) an AAA infomercial pitch about the dangers of texting and driving. So, some change and only because so many spoke up.

Anonymous said...

Have you been following what has been happening at Santa Barbara City College?

https://www.independent.com/news/2018/sep/20/sbcc-president-apologizes-handling-harassment-clai/

After six months of sustained public outcry, and in response to a blisteringly critical letter signed by nearly three dozen faculty members, SBCC President Anthony Beebe publicly apologized last Wednesday for how the college responded to multiple harassment and hostile workplace claims filed by female employees against male colleagues. “My team and I made statements, took actions, and responded to difficult things over the last several months that have hurt members of our college community,” he said in his open letter. “I deeply regret that my actions caused harm.”

Anonymous said...

Not a good look for the college or the board - absolute silence in the face of such acts and such inaction. Let's see, women of color are the targets of threatening, highly disturbing letters by former white male student and when they complain that the college didn't notify them the college ignore them and/or has high ranked employees tell the women they are too sensitive and have nothing to worry about?

Anonymous said...

731. Agree one thousand percent. It is because people are actually saying something that safety is finally being brought up. How/why is the Title IX officer. She belittled and diminished Rebel Girl’s statements and feelings at the open forum and made it all about her. Is this how she talks to students who come to her saying that they have been sexually assaulted? Does she tell them to suck it up and that they are overreacting? Linda, pass the Title IX torch to someone who actually knows what they are doing and how to handle difficult questions crisis intervention more appropriately.

Anonymous said...

10:21: YES. If the Title IX officer treats a tenured faculty member that way, can you imagine how she treats students? Oh WAIT, some of us don't have to imagine, we KNOW. How is it that no one oversees these people? Where is the accountability?

Anonymous said...

Part of a pattern?: female faculty confronted by a menacing student in elevator at Saddleback. Admin slow to act. Unlike IVC, Saddleback doesn't seem to keep a regular Crime Blotter (violation of Clery act?).

Anonymous said...

Word is going around that Anissa Cessa Heard-Johnson, Director of Student Life and Equity was dismissed today. Anyone have any insight on this?

Roy Bauer said...

At the Academic Senate, some of Glenn's "friends" have been pissed about changes for student clubs, and they were actually pursuing a "vote of no confidence" in Cessa. When that idea came to the Senate, many of us grumbled that we hadn't heard Cessa's side of concerning these problems and, besides, a vote of "no confidence" was too big a gun to use on a Director. We should be savin' it for Roquemore.

Rebel Girl said...

RE: Cessa: see new updated post:

https://dissenttheblog.blogspot.com/2018/12/what-we-know.html

Rebel Girl said...

Re: the comment above about Saddleback. You can find the incident mentioned in their Crime Log (it is posted online) along with another rather disturbing incident, here:

https://portal.arms.com/?AgencyId=94

Anonymous said...

"The Great Complacency" has lasted for years. It is an era in which complaints lodged against employees who persistently and publicly diminished female employees and students were ignored and sometimes even celebrated with jokes and honors. Students were told time and time again that there was nothing that could be done. Everyone knows this is true.

Anonymous said...

Rebel Girl speaks her peace at the 32.5 minute mark

http://socccd.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=4&clip_id=670

Anonymous said...

They are certain urgent about some things and not about others. The judgment at work here is inconsistent and applied with prejudice.

Anonymous said...

The SOCCCD Board of Trustees clearly doesn't seem, to give a damn about IVC.

Anonymous said...

FYI: James DeSimone, the attorney who wrote the letter supporting Rebel Girl is on and will be on Court TV covering the George Floyd trial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-CyRa084qs

Did the district ever say anything to Rebel Girl or Yemmy about what they did and didn't do?

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...