SCENE THE
THE
Fall Issue 3
November 11, 2022
THESCENEFP.COM
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On being thankful See page 3
Trunk or Treat See page 4
St. Louis Community College at Forest Park
Longtime art student inspired classmates Judy Medoff, 84, loses cancer battle
By Shengnan Gao The Scene staff Art was therapy for Judy Medoff, and she inspired other students while taking classes at Forest Park. Medoff, 84, died on Sept. 29 after a long battle with lung cancer. She had formed friendships with classmates and instructors, even while she was ill. “I believe our class was a special place for her,” said art professor Mario Carlos, who teaches painting and design. “We’re like a big family here. Medoff Everyone cares about each other. “We play music during class. (Medoff) would sing when she was painting. Sometimes she would dance.” Classmate Marilyn Cathcart met Medoff in an advanced painting class. She described her as someone who did everything “wholeheartedly” and was always interested in learning new things. “I remember her taking several art classes at a time, all of them studio courses requiring substantial time commitments,” Cathcart said. “She was also kind and funny, and her firmly held opinions did not keep her from listening very carefully and patiently to other people’s concerns.” The former Judy Zukerman was born in New York City, according to her obituary published by Berger Memorial Chapel in St. Louis.
See Medoff page 2
An image of one of Judy Medoff’s abstract paintings.
‘Suicide by cop’ threat prompts campus lockdown
By Theodore Geigle The Scene staff A lockdown at Forest Park on Oct. 24 was prompted by a 27-year-old man in the parking lot who told his girlfriend he was going to commit “suicide by cop” during a domestic dispute. St. Louis Community College officials sent emergency notifications via text, email and desktop shortly after 8:30 a.m. They instructed people on campus to “shelter in place” and warned others to stay away. “We issued a lockdown immediately upon getting notice of the suspect,” Forest Park commander Lt. David Berryman said. The man was reportedly armed with a handgun, according to a notice emailed later in the day Berryman by Al Adkins, STLCC director of public safety and emergency management. Coincidentally, the lockdown occurred the same morning that a former student at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis fatally shot two people and injured seven others before he was killed by police on that campus. Adkins announced that there was no relationship between the high-school shooting and Forest Park’s lockdown. In an statement emailed on Oct. 25, Chancellor Jeff Pittman expressed sympathy for the high school victims. “I want to assure you that the safety and security of our students, faculty and staff is our highest priority,” he wrote. “STLCC Police are dedicated to providing a safe and welcoming environment across the district. “Writing a note such as this is hard, but necessary. Gun violence is the last thing we want to think about when sending our children to school, going to work or going about our daily lives, yet it’s a difficult reality.” During the Forest Park lockdown, students, faculty and staff locked classroom and office doors, turned off lights and stayed put for about an hour before being cleared to resume normal activities. In the library, staff directed students to back rooms, according to The Scene staff member Cristian Romero, who was studying. At first, they thought it was an active-shooter drill. “Everyone was just on their phones, minding their business,” Romero said. “But as the seconds turned into minutes, then an hour creeped by, the realization set in that for once it was not a drill.” Other students reacted to the lockdown in different ways. “It made me feel afraid, so I coped with comedy,” said general transfer student Courtland Rogers, 18. “At first, I didn’t think it was real, until I saw this (expletive) police officer what felt like an hour later.” “It made me feel sad,” said criminal jus-
An all-clear notification as it appeared on campus computers on Oct. 24. tice major Tae Jackson, 19. “I was confused and scared. I feel like the people who handle mental health didn’t help enough, and a lot of school shooters are that way.” The series of events that prompted the lockdown began when a couple who lived
nearby had a domestic dispute while driving and stopped in Forest Park’s Parking Lot F, according to Berryman. That’s when the man apparently threatened to harm himself. “Suicide by cop means that the individual is going to get into an armed altercation with the police and die,” Berryman said. The girlfriend exited the vehicle and reported the threat to St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, whose officers joined STLCC police on campus to investigate. The girlfriend then used her cellphone to check the couple’s personal security cameras, saw that the suspect had returned home and showed the footage to police, according to Berryman. The man wasn’t arrested or charged, he said. Forest Park student Maquil An’Noor, 16, who plans to major in law, was unhappy with the way that STLCC officials handled the lockdown. “It’s ridiculous that they sent an email,” he said. “I didn’t see a text even. There weren’t any alarms or anything. Someone from Campus Life told us what was going on.” Graphic design major Demarkus Smith, 18, also had concerns.
See Lockdown page 2
Photos by Markell Tomkins
Diwali celebration Above, Forest Park political science professor Edward Kasule helps nursing student Sumaya Yusuf, 18, create a Rangoli, an Indian art form, as part of the Diwali celebration Oct. 24 in the former cafeteria. Right, campus President Julie Fickas joins biology professor Neelima Bhavsar, left, and Balanand Pinni, board trustee and education chair for Hindu Temple of St. Louis, in the lamp-lighting ceremony.
News
Lockdown
“It really caught me off guard and made me concerned about the safety of this school,” he said. “And they didn’t give us directions.” Berryman noted that emergency drills are held on the Forest Park campus three times a year to get students, faculty and staff familiar with procedures. Students are automatically signed up for text alerts when they enroll at STLCC, and they have to opt out if they want to stop receiving them.
from page 1 “Every system has faults,” Berryman said. “I’m not saying the complaints are unfounded because there’s always room for improvements. But our methods are tried and true.” In his emailed statement, Pittman reminded the campus community about STLCC services to help them cope with fear and trauma, including an Employee Assistance Program. Students also can arrange for counseling at 314-539-5151 or counseling@stlcc.edu.
Medoff
from page 1
Medoff attended Barnard College before getting married to her husband, Gerald Medoff, and moving to St. Louis so he could attend medical school. They later lived in Boston, where Judy Medoff earned her doctorate degree at Brandeis University. She spent two years as an assistant professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, then returned to St. Louis, where she worked as a biology professor for 32 years at St. Louis University before retiring in 2004. “She was fascinated by biological processes, doing very colorful paintings of neurons in the brain, taken from electron microscope images,” Cathcart said. Medoff was a member of the Jewish singing group Shir Ami for decades, according to her obituary. She loved reading the New York Times and visiting museums. Medoff is survived by two sons, Benjamin and Nathaniel, and four grandchildren. “Above all, Judy was fiercely loyal to
her family and friends,” the obituary stated. “She was the real deal, as they say, as genuine and humble as they come, firmly rooted in her Bronx pedigree. “For her kindness, she was blessed with a group of friends, the ‘girl squad,’ as her family later referred to them.” Medoff began taking art classes at Forest Park even before her retirement. Earlier this year, she was chosen to represent the community college at Varsity Art XXVI, a St. Louis exhibition that showcases the city’s finest college art students. Carlos was deeply impressed by Medoff’s passion for art. “Passion is very important for an artist,” he said. “Without passion, your work will not have any soul. “(Medoff) was a good artist. She always tried to learn new things, no matter how the situation was. No matter how physically difficult for her, she always tried. She really enjoyed being creative.”
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Scene THE
Business and web manager: Frenchette Prince Circulation: Zacchaeus Windham Editor: Theodore Geigle Reporters/photographers: Markell Tompkins, Leilani England, Cristian Romero, Obersy Robles Valdez, Michelle Compton, Shengnan Gao, Deborah Moss, April Green
Mini-flood on Oakland
Photos by Michelle Compton
Layout: Gracie Ebenhoh, Evans Agyemang Faculty advisers:
The St. Louis Water Department had to open a fire hydrant and let water gush out onto Oakland Avenue while fixing a pipe break last month, causing a mini-flood north of the Forest Park campus. Above, a scooter splashes its way onto Highlander Drive.
Teri Maddox, Fred Ortlip
The Scene is a publication written and designed by students at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park, 5600 Oakland Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110. The office is in West wing, Room 413. The telephone number is (314) 644-9140. The email address is the_ scene_fp@yahoo.com. All text, photos, graphics and other content are property of The Scene and may not be used without permission. Views expressed are not necessarily those of St. Louis Community
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College, its Board of Trustees or administration. The Scene welcomes opinion pieces and letters to the editor. They should be signed and include the writer’s student or staff number. They can be mailed to the above addresses or delivered by hand. We reserve the right to edit for length and taste. The Scene will run classified ads for students free of charge. They should be submitted in the manner described above.
November 11, 2022
Campus chatter Garrett Rose, 18, business administration “I’m thankful for my family. I have real supportive parents, just a really good home and family life. I’m also thankful for a chance at free education with the A+ Scholarship Program, not going $60,000 in debt for two years. It’s really good from a financial standpoint. I’m just thankful for the opportunity.”
Oluchi Onyegbula, 21, general transfer “I’m thankful for my life and my family and for the opportunity to be in a country like this, the United States, where I have the privileges I didn’t have in my country. I’m just thankful for where I am today as a person; the improvement I’ve made, even in the last couple of months.”
La Toya Smith, 35, administration enrollment employee “I’m thankful for being able to help students complete their purpose here at STLCC and that I get up every morning and get to go home safely every night.”
Alberto Mendieta, 18, business administration “I’m thankful for being able to have two little brothers and be a role model for them through my actions and what I do. I’ve noticed more and more that the saying is true that your younger siblings look up to you and they really admire what you do. So it’s a big responsibility but, at the same time, it makes me feel happy and passionate that what I do will live on through them.”
November 11, 2022
Lea Reiche, 25, children family development “I’m an exchange student from Germany, and I’m thankful to be here to get the experience to live in the United States.”
Rakhi Pillai, dietary internship “I’m thankful for my STLCC career and for getting the opportunity to be part of (the college) and sharing everything. I was here for the Diwali event.”
What are you THANKFUL for this year?
Willie Ash, coordinator, recruitment and outreach “I’m thankful for being in the right mind, right spirit, health and family. Also, for the life I have because it could have been me without (these things) or me as one of the individuals struggling. But God has provided.”
Robin Johnson, Campus Life employee “I’m thankful for seeing another day, being able to come in and help students, and not just help students, but help myself as well. I think we all have a lot of similarities. … Some people are thankful and show their gratitude by helping other people. Some people just do it because they get paid. Basically, there are a lot of things I can be thankful for — having a roof over my head, a car to get me back and forth.”
By Markell Tompkins Tian Geng College Bound coach “I’m thankful for my sister because she’s always there for me. I just really appreciate her. I do love my sister.”
Kristy Dokes, work study student “I’m thankful for God, for him dying on the cross for our sins so that we may live again because nothing is possible without him. So that’s how I look at life. Everything I do is because of him. So I can’t move through life without him. That’s going to sound very religious, and I know a lot of times that’s not in the schools, but that’s just how I feel. My life revolves around God. So I’m thankful for him. I’m thankful for everything, everything I have, everything I do.”
The Scene
Chase Barnes-Watkins, 19, general transfer “I’m thankful for my mom. I have a roof over my head because of her. She always provides for me, especially since she’s a single mom, too, and she’s been taking care of me and my little brother ever since, and I appreciate her a lot.”
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Norleen Nosri, fine arts coordinator “I’m thankful for my STLCC community being supportive during the hard times and during the good times we celebrated together.”
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Trunk or treat
Photo by Michelle Compton
Campus Life sponsored Halloween festivities on Oct. 28. They included, clockwise from top right, costume contests; caramel-apple making by Richard Kuehl of St. Louis Snow Cone; a chopper ride for admissions employee Karen George and her grandson, Zyaire Cox, 2; phone time for Kenny Wottrich and his 3-monthold dinosaur; and trickor-treating with Cookie Monster.
Photo by Leilani England
Photo by Michelle Compton Photo by Michelle Compton
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Photo by Leilani England
The Scene
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November 11, 2022