EL CAMINO COLLEGE
Kalyn Kaemerle takes the field, P. 8
THE UNION eccunion.com
OCTOBER 13, 2016 Follow us at /ECCUnion
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Crime on the rise
Illustration by Phil Sidavong
El Camino remains a haven for drug and liquor law violations, police see spike in weapons arrests Phil Sidavong
Editor-in-Chief @ECCUnionPhil
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n international female student woke up to find a man robbing her home in 2015; the same man raped her before leaving and was caught by police. Over the summer he was sentenced to 28 years in prison. An unknown male subject, who may have been a student, has been asking female students for hugs and sometimes kisses for at least the past two semesters, according to student testimonies. Last fall, three-male students were involved in a fight and one of the students pulled out a knife during the altercation. Every time the police beat comes out, it seems someone is being arrested for drugs or alcohol, and these are just several of the 58 reports and arrests made to the police department during 2015. In 2015 alone, there were five weapons violation arrests. In 2013 and 2014, there was only one. This semester (fall 2016) alone, there have been three-reported armed robberies on Manhattan Beach Boulevard and Lemoli Avenue, with the most recent happening on Oct. 4. Despite the number of weapons violations rising, there are still some (a few) students who feel safe on campus. “I feel safe on campus (at night), the campus is lit up and there are many Blue Emergency Phones on campus,” Elita Yam, 21, radiotechnology major said. But there are those who blame the police on campus like 20-yearold Bryan Chavez, psychology major. “The police aren’t doing what they are supposed to be doing,” he said. “It is shocking, how we could go from one to five weapons arrests
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Community rallies to sue school district over Lot F construction Editor-in-Chief @ECCUnionPhil
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Total number of reports/arrests made on campus in 2013, 2014 and 2015 by school
50
1946-2016
and for L.A. Southwest to have less than us is astonishing (too).” Uriel Vera, 18, aerospace engineering major, sees the number of arrests as an accomplishment for the police. “We have double the number of weapon violations (compared to) other schools,” he said. “But we have to remember this does (mean) we have a better security team than the other schools, because (our police department) is catching more people.” Though the weapons arrests have risen, there hasn’t been a significant change in the liquor and drug abuse violation arrests. “They have been pretty consistent,” EC president Dena Maloney said. “I think that’s an indication of the police force doing (its) job in citing or taking appropriate action.” This information can be found in the El Camino police department’s annual crime report, which is mandatory for schools to produce every Oct. 1 because of the Clery Act - which requires colleges and universities receiving federal funding to disclose the reported instances of criminal activity on their campus. EC police had the report out to the public on time, considering L.A. Harbor College doesn’t have anything past 2013, according to Harbor’s website. In comparison, L.A. Pierce College only had 14 arrests/reports from 2015 and just nine of those were on campus, according to the Pierce College crime report. Santa Monica College had 21 total reports on campus in 2015, according to its own report. El Camino has had 52 of its 58 arrests/reports on campus with the other six being on property contingent to campus, or areas where the police are involved due to certain circumstances.
Number of liquor and drug arrests made by each college in 2015
El Camino 15 arrests
Santa Monica College 11 arrests
L.A. Pierce College 6 arrests
L.A. Harbor had 0 arrests California had 687 alcohol related arrests at colleges in 2014, according to a U.S.News article. Illustration by Phil Sidavong The campus did see a spike in domestic/dating violence and stalking incidents with 21 in the last year, whereas 2013 and 2014 together had just one stalking incident and zero domestic/dating violence reports.
Domestic violence generally includes married people, or people living with each other, whereas dating violence generally involves people who are dating or seeing each other, police chief Michael Trevis said in an email.
He added that there was a change in the law under Title 9 which mandates the police to report domestic and dating violence incidents, whereas in 2013/2014, it did not have to report them in that specific manner.
The community around El Camino Village has united to sue the college district in an attempt to stop construction on the Lot C parking structure and the board of trustees rejected a $900,000 change order in last Wednesday’s special meeting. Construction on Lot C began to create more parking spots for students and was expected to be completed within the next year, but after members of the public expressed concerns at the last board of trustees meeting, completion date of the parking lot is unknown. “My personal mission is to have the structure demolished or at least reduced in size,” former El Camino student Matthew Skinner said at the last meeting. Following Skinner’s comments; other community members were quite angry with the size of the parking structure, saying that construction workers can see into the backyards of the houses and that there are privacy issues. Due to the discontent of the community, on Oct. 17 there will be a hearing with a judge about legal procedures in which the school may have to halt construction on Lot C until a resolution is made. Board president Ken Brown was asked about the hearing; but Dena Maloney, president of EC, informed Brown that litigation (legal procedures) is not necessarily “public knowledge.” There was a closed session on the topic of an approximated $900,000 change order coordinated by Lendlease, which would be necessary if the judge rules against the district to stop construction for at least three to six-months. A change order is a unilateral written order by a project owner, which directs the contractor to change contract amount, requirements, or time, according to BusinessDictionary.com. If the construction on Lot C stops, the original plan for the parking lot will be thrown off-kilter and there will be no guarantee that it will finish within the next year. Lendlease’s representative said that suing the district is merely a strategy that would stop construction until a ruling is made. Vice president John Vargas stepped in to address that the discussion should not be made public knowledge as several comments prior were, insinuating that Lendlease’s representative already gave a little more information than he should have. Although the closed session took about an hour, the rejection of the proposal lasted 30 seconds. “I appreciate the work that’s been done, especially done under a pressed-time schedule,” trustee member Bill Beverly said. “But I’m worried about the expenditure of close to a million dollars.” The next board of trustees meeting will be on Oct. 17.
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