LAMC protests for education Students form an empowerment movement after protest at SMC

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Students at Los Angeles Mission College (LAMC) protested against recent decisions made regarding budget cuts before the Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting last Wednesday by carrying signs calling for help from the board and talking in front of the trustees during the meeting.

“How does it make sense that we’re paying more to get less?”

Mission College’s Associated Students Organization Executive Administrator Randy Gamez said.

The protest was organized and brought into action by Gamez and a group of LAMC students who recently formed the Student Empowerment Movement, an organization with the goal of raising awareness and encourage students to make their voices heard.

Gamez attended the protest outside the BOT meeting at Santa Monica College (SMC), which ended with protesters being pepper-sprayed by police officers. He was pepper-sprayed in attempt to make his voice heard.

“We have been standing here today through sun and rain to make a statement,” he said.

If they do not feel a change in the way the BOT represents student, the Student Empowerment Movement plans to begin a recall campaign that will jeopardize positions of the trustees.

“It’s your job to find the money and make sure that the people in your positions will represent us,” Gamez told the BOT during their meeting.

The students wanted to let the BOT know that they will fight for their rights, computer science major at LAMC Saul Perez said. Perez said that he is afraid that if no one stands up and talks, the government will continue to take away needed resources from students.

He has been finding it difficult to enroll into classes that are required for his major.

“How can they only give us one networking section every other semester?” he said. “It’s a basic class and a basic skill we need.”

Nadia Abrica, the mother of 4-year-old