Kelly Goff & Reza Gostar
Tears flowed as students and faculty from Mission College gathered at the Los Angeles Community College District board meeting May 10 to protest the alleged assault and arrest of a political science professor by Sheriff’s Sgt. Joe Grasso, who supervises Mission, Pierce and Valley Colleges.†
The altercation between Charles “Chuck” Dirks and the L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies is one of two incidents that have led to Darroch “Rocky” Young, LACCD chancellor announcing a meeting with Sheriff Lee Baca to reevaluate the relationship between the department and the district.
“I will schedule a meeting with Sheriff Baca in which we will address those parts of the stipulated relationship that we feel need to be changed in order to make this a successful relationship,” said Young.
Board members informed the audience that Grasso was no longer welcome at the Mission campus. However, according to Norine Plett, operations lieutenant for the Community College Bureau, while he is unwelcome, he has not been formally removed from any of his duties on the three campuses.
Grasso was at work on the Pierce campus Friday.
Another incident involving the Sheriff’s Department at Harbor College in which a gun was pulled on a faculty member was discussed by District Academic President Leon Marzillier at Monday’s senate meeting.
According to a prepared statement distributed and read aloud by Young at the LACCD board meeting, Young feels that while “Each college must be an autonomous unit in which people work together as a team to solve their own institutional problems…We are, frankly, running out of options at Mission College.”
The events leading up to the confrontation between Dirks and Grasso also left Mission Vice President of Student Services Joe Ramirez on administrative leave while his conduct prior to April 27, the day of Dirks’ arrest, is investigated.
Ramirez is accused by a group of Associated Students Organization members of improperly canceling an ASO election on April 25, inappropriately obtaining and tampering with the audio recordings of an ASO meeting on April 26 and ordering the termination of a student cadet who spoke out against him at the meeting.
According to Dr. Jose Leyba, interim president of Mission, a recent investigation into the matter by “independent counsel” has cleared Ramirez of any wrongdoing concerning the ASO election.
But students, 450 of whom signed a petition, and faculty are calling for Ramirez’ resignation because of what they feel is his inability to lead effectively.
“If [Ramirez] comes back to campus, a lot of us [the students] can’t return,” said Yesenia Franco, 21, the cadet who was terminated.
Additionally, the Mission Academic Senate is expected to pass a no-confidence vote on Ramirez at a special meeting tomorrow, according to executive member Vickie Oddino.
“Whatever we end up doing with vice president Ramirez, it is not a solution,” said LACCD Trustee Warren Furutani.
Leyba presented a plan to improve relations on campus.
“I am recommending at this point and time we begin a series of strategies and plans to address the conflict and communication issues,” said Leyba, whose appointment as interim president will conclude at the end of June.
The latest blowup has fueled an already tense campus climate, coming on the heels of what students and faculty describe as prior allegations of both discrimination and favoritism.
On April 24, three ASO senators called a special meeting, according to ASO senator and presidential candidate Jesse Martinez, 24, in which they voted to disqualify another presidential candidate, Cesar Miranda, because he had failed to meet the April 6 deadline to complete his candidacy packet.
Despite three extensions to provide any form of photo identification, Miranda failed to comply, in addition to missing two mandatory candidate meetings, according to ASO senator Oswaldo Alvarenga, 23.
On April 25, Ramirez explored the option of canceling the election and, with Leyba’s approval, informed the ASO that it would be postponed.
At the weekly ASO meeting on April 26, nearly 60 people attended, triple the average weekly attendance.
By several accounts, Franco, who had just returned from a two weeks’ medical leave from her job as a sheriff’s cadet, spoke out against Ramirez, who defended his actions surrounding the ASO election.
After the meeting, Ramirez requested the audio tapes of the meeting from ASO secretary Lorena Lopez.
Lopez said she was “surrounded” by three sheriff’s officials who guided her to the room’s exit, where she was surrounded by five more uniformed personnel, one of whom grabbed her backpack.
“They took away my property without my permission,” said Lopez.
“When I tried to touch her shoulder and say, ‘No, you don’t have to go. You don’t have to give him your tapes,’ one of the sheriffs smacked my hand away,” said Mission student Garni Eskandari, 22.
Emotions were reportedly running high as Lopez was escorted to Leyba’s office, where Ramirez took the tapes after signing an agreement that they would not be tampered with.
The following morning, April 27, Franco called the sheriff’s office around 6:45 a.m. to say that she was still on medication and would be unable to return to her duties yet.
According to Franco, at 7:44 a.m. she was called by Sgt. Grasso who told her that she needed to come in “for an interrogation about what happened at yesterday’s ASO meeting,” and that she could be cited for insubordination if she failed to appear.
Franco said she was still upset from the encounter at the previous day’s ASO meeting. On her way to see Grasso, she ran into Dirks and briefly explained the situation to him. After they attempted to postpone the meeting, Dirks accompanied Franco to the Sheriff’s sub-station for support.
Dirks, who carried a tape recorder with him and provided The Roundup with a copy, can be heard loudly defending Franco as Grasso said that her employment has been terminated.
Plett said Sheriff’s deputies at the time were also making a video tape of the occurrence, which they are now reviewing as part of an internal investigation.
Once outside, Dirks can be heard yelling that they cannot do this and that they must let her pass.
As the tape continues, the sounds of a scuffle can be heard. Dirks alleges that the recording captured Sheriff’s deputies pushing him to the ground, resulting in a cut on his forehead, a tear in his left calf muscle and a handcuffing that resulted in cuts to his wrists.
“Brutality…brutality,” are the last words heard on the tape.
Dirks was transported by ambulance to Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, where he was arrested at 11:45 a.m. He is on leave for the rest of the semester.
“I just feel so bad to leave my students stranded like that,” said Dirks, who is using crutches.
With Ramirez still on administrative leave, the election has been rescheduled for May 30 and 31, according to ASO adviser Robert Crossley.
The ASO is facilitating a May 19 workshop at Mission focusing on team building, communication and leadership for all students.
“It is a very unique situation when you’ve got a college campus and a police agency and how they’re trained to do their job. That doesn’t exactly factor in the unique environment you’ve got on a college campus,” said Robert Garber, Pierce president.
“I’ve always tried to work with the college police to first approach the situation in a way to assure the safety and operational ease of the college and then if there are problems to try to assess those problems really in terms of college policies… before we enter into police policies and the civil or criminal code.”