Students react to King verdict, LA riots By Sarah Schultz Staff Writer
UNREST AND PROTEST· Additional coverage of the Los Angeles riots Strong feelings accompanied powerful and the protest here at Palomar Is statementssuchas"We'vegottokeepsound- located on pages 4 and 5. ing that drum," and "Reality is slapping me right in the face in 1992" at the April30 free diet of the four LAPD officers accused of speech forum on campus. beating King. About 200 students gathered to express Palomar Senator Rebecca Faubus said, outrage at the verdict in the Rodney King "Shame on them (the jurors) and shame on beating trial and the riots which ensued . that court. The judge could have not acMany people took the stage to speak their cepted the verdict" mind, and to vent some of the anger, frustraStudent Jason Staley said, "If we have tion, and hopelessness they were feeling. the right to have a jury of our peers, then we Theplatformwasopentoanyonewhowished should have it. He (King) didn't have a jury to speak. A banner hung along the bottom of of his peers." the clocktower; its large painted letters read, Candye Caleb, ex-senator at Palomar, "How far have we gone?" added her voice. "I don't care what he President Carol Johnson of the Afrikan- (King) did, nobody has the right to beat him American Student Alliance (A.A.S.A.) up. It's inexcusable. It's a real sad day in quoted Malcolm X' s famous statement, "By America when police officials can get away any means necessary," when she called for with eight officers beating up (King)." change in America and encouraged students Vice-President of A.A.S.A. Dave to make that change. Mathis expressed the fear of the police the "Make a difference," Johnson said, "not verdict has brought on. "The police can kick only within yourself. Let's make sure his- your ass! In the system, they're protected." tory does not repeat itself." Jenika Renee Whitehead, one of the last TeriiUne/Staff PltotoRrapiur Most of the speakers expressed their speakers, said the verdict "showed it is not disbelief and anger over the not-guilty ver• see PROTEST, page 6 Palomar student Cecilio DeS use performs a rap April30 in protest of the King verdict.
HE Tuesday, May 12, 1992
ELESCOPE
Palomar Community College, 1140 West Mission Road, San Marcos CA 92069-1487
Volume 45, Number 23
Solutions being sought to salvage ROP classes By Mike LaJoie Staff Writer
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RECORD-BREAKER It only tooksix pitches for Palomar•s Kim Ward, the California Piteber-of-theYear, to eclipse Cami Allen's (also from Palomar) 1990 single-season stt;jkeout record of333,1asf Saturday. Ward went on to down 16 ofZl College of the Desert batters en route to a perfeet no-bitter in the second round qf the Southern Regional Championship Tournament last Friday and Saturday. Ward finished
the tournament "ith 348 single-season strikeouts. See the stories on page lS.
In an effort to appease Regional Occupation Program (ROP) child care program students whose Vista class will be eliminated due to budget cuts, a possible transfer of classes to Palomar College may be in effect. At the April 28 Governing Board meeting, the immediate elimination of the Vista child care program was announced due to a 13 percent drop in the $1 million ROP statefunded budget. Since some of the classes at the child care program are also available at Palomar, ROP officials decided the cut had to be in the Vista child care class. Over 30 students from the ROP child care program spoke out against the class elimination at the Board meeting. This large turn out delayed the elimination and created a possible alternative of transferring students from ROP to the Palomar Child Care Center to finish their classes. Margie L. Ruzich, associate professor of child development at Palomar devised the transfer idea · "After the board meeting I was concerned about the problem from a faculty point of view," said Ruzich. "I went to Vice President of Instruction Dr. Merrilee Lewis and discussed the idea of letting students transfer their units over to Palomar to complete the same class during the summer. I had to work on compromise that the board and the students wanted. I wanted a win-win situatiOn and I want to see it work." At the upcoming May 12 Governing Board meeting, members will decide if this transition is accepted or rejected and that has students worried. "Where am I to go? What am I to do?" said student Carmen Pena. "The ROP gave me a job in four months working as an aide
at a pre-school center. I want to continue my training to be a pre-school teacher. I have six children, I need a better income." The ROP is a state funded vocation training program that contracts with Palomar College District to offer transferable classes. Students enrolling in ROP register through Palomar to obtain the classes. The child care program is set to be eliminated April 30. The ROP center child care program provides classroom and actual experience at pre-school centers for students wanting to be in pre-school teaching and management The benefit of going through ROP instead of Palomar is that ROP emphasizes actual experience versus studying in the classroom. This experience is what employers are looking for. For instance, the Department of Social Services requires a certain number of hours to qualify an individual for a preschool manager position. ROP student Kim Black, who studies child care, said 10 to 20 hours of work experience a week at a pre-school center goes into each class. "The class gives invaluable experience," said Black. "This is what employers look for and require people wishing to be pre-school teachers. We don't want to start over. We · can't wait that long." JoAnne Osborn, director of ROP programs, said that strong emotion has escalated the problem. '"We need positive communication," said Osborn. "This is a complex issue and we need to think clearly to fmd a solution." In the child care workshop there are over 30 students who would need to transfer to Palomar. There are currently 12 different vocational programs in ROP with 33,000 students attending county-wide.