Share: Ten members of Pasadena City College’s women’s basketball team have sued the college and three members of its coaching staff, including former Head Coach Joseph Peron, and former Assistant Coaches Bill “Rocky” Moore and Gary Potts, alleging years of sexual harassment, discrimination, battery and financial misconduct. The lawsuit was officially filed in the Superior Court of California on September 17. The plaintiffs are identified as Jane Does in the lawsuit to protect their identities given the sensitive nature of the allegations. In the complaint, the plaintiffs jointly allege that Peron, Moore, and Potts sexually harassed them, discriminated against them due to their religions and sexual orientations, took money from them, made sexual comments, and other inappropriate behavior that made them feel embarrassed and scared. According to the lawsuit, this alleged sexual commentary …
Former PCC dispatcher claims Matchan’s misconduct dates back to 2005
Share: Christy Lopez, a former Pasadena City College police dispatcher, alleges she experienced sexual harassment and threats from former Police Chief Steven Matchan around 2005, nearly two decades before the period covered by the allegations from a current lawsuit against the college and Matchan. Lopez says she experienced similar behaviour from Matchan to what was alleged by the plaintiffs shortly after he joined the department and was still an officer. Lopez, who says she was 19 at the time, claims Matchan made inappropriate comments about …
Chief of Police Steven Matchan resigns amid lawsuit over alleged sexual harassment
Share: PCC Chief of Police Steven Matchan has resigned amid a lawsuit involving allegations of sexual assault, according to an email sent to PCC faculty on Thursday morning. As the Courier previously reported, Matchan is currently in the middle of a lawsuit, along with the college and other officials, due to allegations of sexual harassment against him from six former and current female Campus Police employees. According to court documents, the alleged harassment spans over nearly a decade. In the Courier’s original reporting on the …
The real fraud is in the White House, not Ilhan Omar’s house
Share: U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar is just the newest victim of President Donald Trump’s relentless attack against citizens who don’t fit his ideas of what a ‘real American’ looks like. Homeland Security raiding Omar’s home, accusing her of committing immigration fraud and threatening to deport her not only reeks of this administration’s bias against immigrants but also of the Islamophobia that has plagued this nation for far too long. It is rare to see a Muslim, much less a Muslim woman, be put into any …
Campus Police employees sue PCC over alleged sexual harassment by Chief of Police
Share: Six current and former female PCC campus police employees are suing the college and Chief of Police Steven Matchan, alleging years of sexual harassment and gender discrimination they endured under him, according to court records. The female employees named as plaintiffs in this case—Ruby Valdez, Rocio Diaz Ortiz, Raquel Barron, Nishelle Andrion, Francis Echeverria and Delilah Patino—all filed their complaints in March with the California Civil Rights Department, while the official lawsuit was filed on May 4. The complaint included similarities in what Matchan …
Hiding behind religion on September 11 has left scars on a torn nation
Share: A quarter of a century ago, terrorists changed the foundation of America as a whole forever when they stole nearly three thousand lives. That is not to mention the lives of the first responders who suffered health complications from that day. Not only did they destroy families in a heinous attempt to justify their delusional beliefs and hatred towards people they do not classify as their own, but they also managed to destroy the lives of the very people whose religion they claimed to …
Target has shown its true face again and it’s ugly
Share: The mask of Target has once again fallen, showing that the company does not care for people of color, despite the face they put on about being inclusive. That very idea was certainly refuted just in the past year when, after President Donald Trump was inaugurated and signed orders that targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, Target decided to roll back its programs. This started a series of boycotts because, in doing this, Target was telling people of color that they did not …
Police arrest man outside gym after reported firearm threat
Share: Pasadena City College students received a Rave Alert on Tuesday morning instructing them to avoid the campus gym due to police activity after an individual allegedly threatened to have a firearm and harm people, according to campus police. “We contacted Pasadena Police to come and provide armed backup since campus police is unarmed,” said Sergeant Tyler Robins, the supervisor of police and safety services on campus. The Rave Alert was sent at 10:54 a.m. with only the instruction to stay away. The message had …
PCC loses power in a campus wide outage
Share: On Thursday, August 27, at 12:33 p.m., Pasadena City College’s Colorado Campus experienced a campus-wide outage. Students and campus police noticed the campus bookstore had lost power before a Rave alert sent by the college determined that the entire campus was currently without power. Spaces such as the Pathways Center started to alert passing students that there was no power. Several students seemed to have no idea what happened, specifically those who were not actively in classes or had just arrived on campus and …
New English cohort will develop pro-Black mindsets in the classroom
Share: In hopes of instilling a better educational experience for Black students at Pasadena City College (PCC), PCC’s English Department is creating a Black English cohort set to begin next Fall. The cohort is a workshop series for English faculty called Pro-Black Mindsets and Classrooms, a collaboration between the English Department and the Office of Institutional Equity, Diversity, and Justice (IEDJ). It hopes to address equity and retention gaps as well as to develop faculty’s pedagogical and curricular objectives to address conscious and unconscious biases. …