Volume 77, Issue 2 | www.elaccampusnews.com | Wednesday, September 18, 2019 | Single copy free - additional copies 50 cents
Mental illness and mass shootings not linked Psi Beta Club explores brain chemistry in mass shootings Staff Writer A correlation between mental illness and mass shootings exists, but the Psi Beta Club made it clear that it isn’t always the direct cause. “Correlation does not imply causation. Just because two things happen at the same time, does not mean that those two things are related or one caused the other,” Bryant Horowitz, co-adviser of the Psi Beta Club said. This was their first meeting of the semester and Horowitz said they wanted to discuss current events to keep things interesting and engaging for members. C l u b o ff i c e r s p r e s e n t e d a powerpoint in which they all voiced their opinions and gave factual evidence to back themselves up. Statistics and pie charts of gun violence, suicide and mental illness were shown to give the audience numbers and an actual timeline of the events discussed. They said that 96% of violence would still occur even if the U.S. eliminated the risk of violence related to major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia since it is caused by other factors.
A recent video where president Donald Trump blames video entertainment was shown. Nods were seen throughout the crowd as a recent video of Trump was shown where he can be heard pointing the finger for the shootings to all forms of entertainment and mentioning the death penalty. In the video, trump says “Mental illness and hatred pull the trigger, not the gun.” This statement was a main point that the club addressed. A study titled Longitudinal Effects of Video Games on Aggression in Japan and the United States says, “There is some evidence from television research that a focus on the pain and suffering of the victims of violence may reduce its harmful impact, whereas glamorizing the violent actions of attractive perpetrators may increase the harmful impact.” “Society relies on the media so much, but the media has the freedom to amplify certain issues that I feel people that go through these traumatic events want something to blame,” said Karen Montes, President of the Psi Beta Club. “It’s easy for them to point their finger at whatever the media is saying. People let their emotions get to them too easily. They need to do their own
research and inform themselves.” Throughout the presentation, the officers encouraged people to go out of their way to get their news and for them to do deeper research when it comes to certain topics and sources. “In this era of fake news, one of the things that we really need is for our students all over campus to know what is real and what’s being said because they are being told to say so, or influenced by their bosses (and emotions),” Horowitz said Mentions of Japan having a higher amount of video game consumption allowed for club officers pointing their fingers to certain gun laws the U.S. has passed. A study made in June by Isabel M. Perera and Dominic A. Sisti shows that it is hard to correlate mass shootings and mental illness. “Just because somebody is angry, they think that there is some sort of mental illness and they shoot a bunch of people or it’s a racial epithet or something like that and they put the two together. Then they say ‘one must have caused the other,’” Horowitz said. “And then if we give somebody the label of mentally ill, what we’re doing is causing more stigmatization in society because you get a label. That label sticks with you.”
CN/STEVEN ADAMO
BY ANDREW AYALA
NetTutor arrives at ELAC with in-person tutoring during regular campus hours throughout the year, because we want our Free help is a click away for students to succeed and to have the new and returning students in the best higher education experience we Los Angeles Community College can provide.” Little is known about the NetTutor District through the NetTutor online service so far. Pauletta Daw, director tutoring service. of the Distance Learning Committee Tutoring is available for English, Math, English as a Second Language, for East Los Angeles College, Statistics and First Year Experience just found out about the online tutoring service last classes. Twenty-four week, according hour live tutoring is to Amanda Ryanonly available for The Distance Math and English “This is a great Romo. Learning Committee at specific times c o m m u nicates service that depending on the with and advises subject. Paper and the district is the college on its essay reviews are decision making providing for offered as well. online Students can free to all of our regarding learning issues. a c c e s s N e t Tu t o r “The District students.” by logging into picked it without t h e D i s t r i c t ’s letting any of us online portal and know,” said Ryanclicking the “Online Romo, who is the Tutoring” link. As director of ELAC’s long as students ANDRA HOFFMAN Learning Center. LACCD Board of Trustees go through their The Learning Center President LACCD portal, there o ff e r s i n - p e r s o n is no cost and no tutoring in a variety additional account of subjects such as chemistry, registration. The link will direct them to a website where they can accounting, sociology and more. self-enroll and select a subject from It also houses a computer lab with all the latest software. “I don’t the menu. “This is a great service that the know why people would do online District is providing free to all of tutoring. Person-to-person is a lot our students,” LACCD Board of better,” said Ryan-Romo. Students seem to agree. “I haven’t Trustees President Andra Hoffman tried online tutoring before,” said said in a news release. “The best part about NetTutor is that it’s accessible Amanda Fonseca, ELAC student 24/7. Oftentimes, our students and frequent user of the math study or do homework late at night, tutoring center. “I think that it would so NetTutor is available on their confuse me more. I need to have schedule when they need a little someone actually explain it to me help. Of course, we’ll also continue in person. That’s how I learn best.”
Football Win
BY MELISA VALENZUELA Staff Writer
COURTESY OF MARC BERMAN’S OFFICIAL WEBSITE
PARKING THE BILL—Berman and students promote Safe Lot Legislation for homeless
students.
Assembly Bill 302 postponed until 2020 BY IVAN CAZARES Staff Writer California Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Palo ALTO) has decided to postpone a proposed law that would require community colleges to permit students facing homelessness to use parking lots located on campuses to sleep in their cars. The decision to postpone AB 302 is in response to changes made to the bill by the Senate Appropriations Committee in August. The fate of the proposed law introduced by Berman and coauthored by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzales will be decided Sept 2020. Berman’s primary grievance is an amendment which would exempt colleges located within 250 feet of an elementary school. In the bill’s original draft, only colleges that provide alternative services that help homeless students with housing such as hotel vouchers could be exempt from the program. “The amendment to exempt community colleges located within 250 feet of an elementary school
is detrimental to our efforts to encourage these homeless students to seek help,” Berman wrote in a press release Sept. 3rd. “Homeless students are not pedophiles that need to be kept away from children. They are men and women – many of them barely adults themselves – who are trying to improve their lives by obtaining a better education. They should be celebrated, not stigmatized. I am also unaware of any elementary school students attending school between 9 p.m. and 7am, which is when Safe Lots programs typically operate.” East Los Angeles College is within 250 feet of Robert Hill Lane Elementary School and Brightwood Elementary School leaving its participation in Safe Lots program up to its administration if the bill is made into law. ELAC provides some services that help the homeless, but doesn’t offer any direct housing aid to them. The Associated Student Union and various departments organize food pantries and clothing drives for students in need regardless of housing status. It also abides by AB 1995 which
was signed into law by former Governor Jerry Brown in 2016. The law mandates that community colleges allow homeless students access to their shower facilities. “We have an idea (of who’s homeless,) but because of privacy we don’t ask. If they are a student then they have the right to use the facilities. If we have questions we could ask for an ID or class schedule, but we don’t ask if they are homeless,” Erika Blanco, chair of the Kinesiology Department said. “For students not in the Kinesiology Department we have (the showers) open from 12 to 2 p.m., but if a student comes at 7 p.m. we don’t turn them away. But again, we ask for an ID to use our facilities. The school definitely does what it can to support.” Blanco said the shower facilities are in the North Gym, which are the ones students not in sports or in the Kinesiology Department can use are open until 8 p.m. The current version of the bill has the colleges providing this resource from July 2021 to 2023 if ratified.
Page 2
News Briefs MESA Research Symposium
ELAC STEM summer research interns will showcase poster presentations on Thursday from noon to 1:30 p.m. in F5-201.
ELAC Club Rush
There will be a club fair from Sept. 23-26 from 10 a.m. to 3. p.m. in the E3 Quad.
New Law Certificate International Law and Public Policy Certificate of Achievement is available now.