Longtime Pierce College automotive technology professor Tom Fortune is teaching four classes this fall, a load similar to previous semesters. Several of the courses he teaches are a requirement for auto tech students to graduate. Each of the sections is full, and many have a lengthy waitlist.
For multiple auto tech students who spoke to the Roundup, these facts pose a frustrating reality. The students said Fortune repeatedly bullied them, made sexist and racist comments and required them to take expensive off-site tests. They also said Fortune demeaned them when they spoke out.
The Roundup interviewed students, faculty, Pierce President Ara Aguiar and Fortune, and reviewed months of emails, lecture videos and other documentation. The records and interviews show that the Los Angeles Community College District is aware of misconduct allegations involving Fortune.
Fortune said allegations that he made derogatory remarks are false.
The district put Fortune on paid administrative leave for 90 days during the Spring 2024 semester, after multiple complaints. Now, he’s back to teaching, pending further investigation — and some students say little has changed.
‘Bigoted or inappropriate’ remarks
When Joanna Trujillo walks into her automotive technology classes, she wears the same red and black, grease-stained uniform as the rest of her peers. But as one of two or three women in each class of 40 to 50 students, she stands out.
Although Trujillo’s presence is an anomaly in a male-dominated field, she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty tuning up an engine, and she said her classmates typically treat her with respect.
Trujillo said she was “upset” when she witnessed the comments she said that Fortune made while teaching an auto tech class she was in earlier this year.
Trujillo and two other students said Fortune spent several minutes during a class session demeaning men whose girlfriends earn more money than them. Then, the students say, Fortune said it’s best if both a man and a woman in a relationship earn a high salary, but not if the woman does it “by being on the pole.” Fortune said this claim is false.
“I was like ‘What the hell,’” Trujillo said. “I wasn’t the only one to hear it, and it threw me off. In auto, for females especially, we’re supposed to just deal with the inappropriate comments dudes make.”
But Fortune is a professor, and “it’s not okay,” Trujillo said.
The students said Fortune has repeatedly made degrading comments about women’s bodies, including their butts and breasts. They said Fortune has frequently gone on tangents during class time about strippers and prostitution, both before and after his Spring 2024 leave. Fortune said he did not make such remarks.
“He still would continue to do the things he used to do, even though he was warned,” said Trujillo, who is currently taking a class with Fortune.
Carlos Arroyo, an auto tech major who has taken multiple classes taught by Fortune, said the professor’s comments are often “bigoted or inappropriate.”
As a member of the FAST club, an automotive tech organization at Pierce, Arroyo attended the club’s end-of-the-year event in 2023.
A tradition of the club is for students to get toolboxes when they graduate. Arroyo said that at the 2023 end-of-the-year event, Fortune remarked that those toolboxes “aren’t for Mexicans.” Arroyo, a Hispanic student, said Fortune looked directly at him when he said it, later patting Arroyo on the back and claiming he was joking. Fortune said he did not make these comments.
Automotive technology professor Alex Villalta was at the event and said he also witnessed the comment.
“Words matter, and they matter a lot,” Villalta said. “You can say you were just kidding, but they still matter.”
Villalta, who used to be the auto tech department chair, said Fortune has “bullied and dehumanized” students, specifically female, Hispanic and disabled students, for years. Villalta said students have complained about Fortune to him, with one crying in Villalta’s office.
“As sad as it is, it’s almost the norm [in the auto industry],” Villalta said. “But this should be a learning environment, a safe environment.”
Hundreds of dollars of tests
According to four students and Villalta, an obstacle to succeeding in Fortune’s classes was that until this semester, he had required outside tests called Automotive Service Excellence certifications, or ASEs.
The tests could cost as much as $100 each, and were not administered or graded by Fortune. Fortune confirmed that he previously required these tests.
“Getting to go take the test is a valuable experience,” Fortune said.
The tests were required for students to pass some of Fortune’s classes, despite only being mentioned in the Course Outline of Record reports for the classes as a goal for which to prepare students, not a requirement. The “student-provided resources” sections of the required Course Outline of Record reports, which were reviewed by the Roundup, mention only “safety glasses, textbook [and] shop clothes.”
Fortune said that offering ASEs was a team decision by the department. These types of outside tests are not a requirement to pass in other Pierce auto tech classes, though. Some professors offer extra credit to take them.
Victor Marroquin, an auto tech student who graduated in June, worked full time while attending Pierce at night. Some of the final courses he needed to graduate were taught by Fortune and required ASEs. He said he ended up taking and retaking the exams a total of nine times — spending more than $800 — before passing the classes that required the ASEs.
Marroquin also said had to take a day off work each time he took an ASE, because the offsite, in-person exams conflicted with his schedule.
“It made me feel unmotivated,” Marroquin said. “It had me stressing out so much. It made me not want to even show up to class, because I was told if I don’t pass this one thing, I’m not going to be able to graduate.”
Auto tech major Lenore Kassab said he spent more than $300 on ASE tests. He said interacting with Fortune led him to try to get a substitute class for one of Fortune’s advanced classes to avoid having to take another class with him. He said the testing and substitution ordeal have led to a delay in getting his diploma, despite having all other requirements completed.
“In these classes, you’re not learning anything and you’re dealing with all this,” Kassab said. “It’s really disappointing.”
Fortune confirmed that, as of this semester, he no longer requires the tests, and that discontinuing the requirement wasn’t his decision.
Students say Fortune repeatedly bullied them
The students who spoke to the Roundup said Fortune has engaged in verbal bullying. They said he demeans students who work non-automotive jobs, although many are low-income students, and do so to make ends meet while still in school.
In lesson videos reviewed by the Roundup, Fortune gave examples and anecdotes of students, who he did not identify by name, working jobs he considered low level and not “giving the industry a chance.” These examples included “working at dad’s construction company” and “manager at Bevmo.”
Kassab said one of Fortune’s low-level job anecdotes was about him, although Fortune never said it was. Kassab said he felt like everyone in the class recognized it was about him because the auto tech department is small.
“That’s really not a good example for a professor to set, to call out his students like that,” Kassab said.
Trujillo said Fortune has told the students that they could end up homeless, or needing to drink and smoke weed to get through the day, if they don’t find a good job.
Villalta also said Fortune has bullied students, including using the R-slur. Fortune said the claims of bullying are false.
LACCD investigation
The LACCD investigated the complaints against Fortune in Spring 2024, placing him on a 90-day paid administrative leave. According to Aguiar, further investigation is ongoing.
The events that initially sparked an investigation, according to the students, Villalta and Fortune, were some students cheating on ASEs.
Some of the students who were interviewed by the Roundup said they knew of peers who submitted fake ASE results to Fortune, to avoid the stress and cost of repeatedly retaking the ASEs. Fortune said he then alerted Villalta, who was department chair at the time, and other Pierce admin of the cheating.
Fortune said he expected disciplinary action to be taken against the students. What instead happened was that administrators were concerned about the ASE requirements in the first place.Concerns were raised that requiring students to pay for and pass an outside test could be in violation of California Title 5, Section 55002.
In the time since district and college administration began investigating Fortune, several current and former students have come forward with their experiences of alleged bullying, sexism and racism.
When Fortune came back from his administrative leave, some students said his alleged misconduct did not change or end.
Trujillo, who is currently in a class taught by Fortune, said Fortune announced in a class session that he is “an asshole” but that, since he was able to return, it means he can “be an asshole.”
Fortune said that claim is false. He added, in an interview with the Roundup, “I’m not going to comment. I am an asshole, okay. I am all right. How many people could admit that, ‘I could be a bit of an asshole sometimes.’”
Fortune said that the students’ various complaints about his comments are false, and that they were “solicited by the former department chair to complain about me.” He said the student concerns tie back to Villalta, who was not re-elected to be department chair, with his term ending on July 1, 2024.
The students disputed this claim, and so did Villalta.
“As department chair, the students’ complaints came to me, and my job as a chair was to report what they were saying,” Villalta said. “My mindset is of serving the students. This is about the students and the needs of the students, not me.”
Kimhou Chhith, the current chair of the auto tech department, did not respond to a request for comment.
Career Technical Education Dean Mon Khat said, “I have received the concerns that the student body and additional stakeholders have raised about the situation, and we are looking into them. Unfortunately, I am unable to comment on matters that are still pending.”
“I want you to know that here at LA Pierce College, we do take these concerns seriously and handle them with care and concern for all parties involved,” Khat added.
The students who spoke to the Roundup said they are disappointed in the way the district has handled the complaints. Some of the students said that college administrators were helpful initially, but that once the complaints escalated to the district, they felt unsupported.
Some of the students went to the Sept. 28 meeting of the Pierce Academic Senate, hoping to raise awareness of their concerns.
“The school and the district just brushed it off, basically,” Arroyo said.
An LACCD media representative said the district “cannot comment on the specifics as this matter is part of an ongoing investigation.”
“We want to emphasize that we take all allegations seriously and are committed to maintaining a safe and supportive campus environment for all students and employees,” the district media representative added.
Aguiar said it’s important to follow the proper processes for investigations into professors. “We have to be fair to everybody,” Aguiar said, adding that in the meantime, “students can feel that we’re not doing enough.”
“It’s not going on deaf ears,” Aguiar said. “We are very much aware and we are in the process of working with the district, so that the district can continue to look into this matter. The faculty, they’re entitled to that process, and so we are following the process, both for our employees, and then we’re also being responsive to the student concerns.”
