Vol. 161, Issue 8 | May 11– May 25, 2016 | City College of San Francisco | Since 1935 | FREE
FRISCO 5
PROTESTERS OCCUPY CITY HALL City College students, journalists allegedly battered and 33 protesters arrested
Journalism Dept. to Pursue Complaints
Protesters Allege Police Misconduct
By Marco Siler-Gonzales & Audrey Garces
By Marco Siler-Gonzales mgonzales@theguardsman.com
mgonzales@theguardsman.com agarces@theguardsman.com
City College journalists are alleging police brutality and misconduct at the hands of sheriff deputies during a protest that ended in 33 arrests, including one minor, at City Hall on May 6. Some 100 protesters amassed at City Hall just after 6:30 pm to demand Mayor Ed Lee to fire San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr. The protesters risked arrest when they entered a side door of City Hall to occupy the front entrance, then stayed past the building’s closing time of 8 p.m. and ignored several dispersal orders issued over a megaphone by a sheriff's deputy. Guardsman photojournalist Gabriella Angotti-Jones said that authorities in riot gear began arresting protesters just before 9 p.m. While photographing a female protester being detained, her legs were kicked out by two officers who then dragged her away from the detainee she’d been photographing, Jones said. Jones, who said her press badge was hung around her neck, told the two officers
An activist is detained during a protest against alleged police brutality at City Hall during closed hours on Friday, May 6, 2016. (All photos by Gabriella Angotti-Jones/The Guardsman).
An activist cries as she is arrested.
Sheriff’s deputies arrest two activists.
Journalism Dept. continues on page 3
Those protesting at City Hall identify themselves as the Frisco 500 in solidarity with the five people (dubbed the Frisco Five) who held a hunger strike from April 21 to May 7 to demand the firing or resignation of San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr, who they hold responsible for what they call racist and unaccountable policing by the department. Captain Paul Tamayo of the Sheriff’s department told Mission Local that those arrested at City Hall were charged with unlawful assembly, trespassing and resisting arrest and were held in the county jail at 850 Bryant St. All 33 protesters were released throughout the following morning and afternoon on May 7, where they were greeted by fellow activists and supporters. Several activists alleged misconduct and brutalization by the sheriff’s deputies during their arrest at City Hall. “They (the officers) slammed me on the floor and dragged me to the elevator by my hair,” Frisco 500 activist Camille Safiya said in an Police Misconduct continues on page 3
Sheriff’s deputies blocked approximately 100 activists from entering further into City Hall.
Proposed Law Banning Smoking on Campus Gains Steam By Andy Bays abays@theguardsman.com
The California State Assembly passed bill AB 1594 on April 25 that, if ratified, will prohibit use of all tobacco products on California community college and state university campuses by January 2018. The next stop for the bill, authored by Assemblymembers Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) and Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), is the senate.
Then it’s off to the governor’s desk for signing. “We need to promote a safe and healthy environment for the campus staff, students and faculty,” McCarty said. “This bill helps address the harmful health effects that come with smoking and secondhand smoke on our college campuses.” In addition to conventional cigarettes, the bill includes a ban on vapes, chewing tobacco and dip. Currently, each college campus decides
for themselves what their smoking policy is. If this bill passes, it will create a uniform smoking ban on all colleges in California, including designated smoking areas. City College’s Ocean campus has 10 designated smoking areas. “Willful or persistent smoking in any area where smoking is prohibited,” as the violation is described in Student Code of Conduct, Smoking on Campus continues on page 2
A City College student uses an electronic cigarette after class. A new law would ban smoking on campus, including e-cigs. (2014 file photo by Elisa Parrino/The Guardsman)
2 | news
Vol. 161, Issue 8 | May 11 – May 25, 2016
Anti-Gentrification Teach–In Preaches in Numbers By Patrick Fitzgerald pfitzgerald@theguardsman.com
Staff Editor-in-Chief Marco Siler-Gonzales Managing Editor Santiago Mejia News Editor Audrey Garces Photo Editor Franchon Smith Culture Editor Michaela Payne Sports Editor Shannon Cole Opinion Editor Cassie Ordonio Copy Editors Madeline Collins Michaela Payne Patrick Fitzgerald Nancy Chan David Horowitz Design Director Serina Mercado Online News Director Patrick Fitzgerald
Approximately 100 people packed into a room at City College’s Mission Center on April 30 listened with rapt attention to multi-talented artist Yolanda Lopez recount her activist days while exhorting a new generation to fight against gentrification of San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood. 74-year-old Lopez faced gentrification as she and her former partner, Rene Yañez, received an Ellis Act eviction notice from their home of 42 years in May 2014. She has since received a one-year reprieve from eviction thanks to the help of the San Francisco Community Land Trust and Mission Economic Development Agency, yet she finds the short deferment cold comfort. Lopez was the guest speaker at a teach-in workshop on stopping gentrification led by City College interdisciplinary studiesinstructor Leslie Simon. The workshop
was designed to educate, network and empower others to employ strategies that would mitigate the most egregious gentrification effects throughout San Francisco -- especially those epitomized in the Mission neighborhood. “The message of the event was that a wide range of individuals and organizations are working to stop gentrification,” Simon said in an email. “The other goal…was to link anti-gentrification work with proenrollment work at City College at Mission Campus, and a small group will be investigating the possibility of a door-to-door campaign in the Mission.”
Panel discussion
After Lopez spoke and reviewed slides of her former activist artwork, a seven-member panel convened and discussed ongoing organizing efforts focused on anti-gentrification in the Mission and City College’s own community efforts to boost enrollment. Among the many organizations working against gentrification are the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, Calle 24, Plaza 16, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment
Advertising Manager Cara Stucker
Smoking on Campus continued from page 1
Social Media Director Margaret Weir
ban unnerving. Melissa is grounds for punishment. Quijada, sophomore in Punishments range from nursing, thinks the college warnings and reprimands, should keep the designated to retribution, disciplinary smoking areas. “I don’t probation and removal. smoke, but a lot of people Director of Student Health Services Becky Perelli is optimistic about having less cigarette smoke on campus.“We’re working to become 100-percent tobacco free. We’ve assessed through surveys that that’s what students and faculty want, and that’s where we’re hopefully headed. ” Perelli added that there are a host of resources available through Student Health Services to help nicotine addicts kick their habit. Some of the most effective ones are group therapy, nicotine gum and quitting cold-turkey. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17 percent of adults in the U.S. smoked cigarettes in 2014. Additionally, smoking is tied to one-in-five deaths, making it the leading preventable death in the U.S. Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill on May 4 that will raise the California smoking age from 18 to 21, and he vetoed a bill that would allow counties to vote on how much to tax cigarettes. “We realize it is an addiction and needs to be treated,” Perelli said. “As far as e-cigarettes go, there hasn’t been enough research on them, so they shouldn’t be thought of as ‘safe.’” Some students find the
Staff Writers Andy Bays Nancy Chan Daniela Fiestas-Paredes Dakari Thomas Brian Davis Staff Photographer Gabriella Angotti-Jones Contributors Natasha Dangond Ms. Bob Davis Elisa Parrino Faculty Adviser Juan Gonzales Reach us at Twitter and Instagram @theguardsman #CCSFjournalism Facebook /theguardsman Youtube theguardsmanonline theguardsman.com Mail 50 Phelan Ave Box V-67 San Francisco, CA 94112 Bungalow 615 Phone (415) 239-3446 Affiliates
(ACCE), the Council of Community Housing Organization (CCHO), and PODER. Panelist Carolyn Gage of (ACCE) Bayview, spoke about her experience as a victim of predatory lending often used to displace families from their homes. She spoke of gentrification as having a positive connotation of neighborhood beautification when in reality, it destroys and uproots existing neighborhoods and their character. Others spoke of how banks, speculators, fancy developments and even redesign of transportation such as The Third Street Light Rail Project, can disrupt existing communities and thereby exploit them either by willful intent or benign neglect. Yet the preeminent message of the teach-in was there is strength in numbers. “Organizing can provide people power that can translate into political power that can create laws to help keep communities stay intact,” Don Schaan, an activist and former City College student said. “People meeting others doing similar work help inspire confidence and camaraderie that make hard work seem easier and more rewarding.”
do, so we should just keep the smoking areas as they are.” Melbin Martinez, an ESL student since 2014, enjoyed a smoke before
City College Enrollment
Simon saw parallels between the Mission District gentrification and City College’s own struggle fending off the fallout of low enrollment caused by a brutal, ongoing accreditation fight with the Accreditation Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. Edgar Torres, chair of Latin American and Latino/a studies at City College, spoke not only of the need for people to become involved, but also the need for people to seek an education and for that education to be free. “The idea of having the first two years of tuition free for anyone who is a resident of San Francisco or anyone who works here 50 percent of the time is absolutely critical,” Torres said. “When I went to study not so long ago, it was free, and I would certainly like to see it return to that.“
For the full story, visit www.theguardsman.com/ anti-gentrification
class at Mission Center. “I view. “I will support the ban think it’s a bad idea,” he when I quit,” she said as she said. “Not good.” inhaled from a cigarette. Antoinette Cole, also “However, I still smoke. So, a sophomore in nursing, right now, I’m against it.” had a somewhat nuanced
news | 3
Vol. 161, Issue 8 | May 11 – May 25, 2016
Protesters Reflect on Day of Action After Release Police Misconduct continued from page 1
“I’m only ten times stronger than I was yesterday.”
—Camille Safiya
interview with The Guardsman just after she was released from the jail. “I told them my cuffs were too tight, and the female officer that was in the elevator tightened my cuffs, actually spraining my right hand.” City College student and Frisco 500 activist Yesenia Cielo believes Safiya was targeted by the sheriff’s deputies during the City Hall protest. “I feel like they made an example of her, because she was the one leading,”
City College Criminal Justice student, Yesenia Cielo, sits with a blanket wrapped around her after being released from county jail.
Cielo said outside the jail. “They grabbed her from the middle of the group. There were about four police officers on her and they dragged her to the elevator.” Cielo was also arrested, and said she was not provided medical attention until 2 a.m. after she made multiple requests for her bad knee to be checked by a medic. Eleven men, 21 women and 1 minor from the Frisco 500 were arrested, but despite the long night of containment and alleged abuse, the activists rejoiced in their commitment to one another and to their cause. “I’m only ten times stronger than I was yesterday,” Safiya said. “And I am so ready to continue fighting because I refuse to bring a child into this world with them (SFPD and Sheriff’s Department) treating us the way they are.”
Gabe Kahn, a protester at the rally inside City Hall on the night of Friday, May 6, stands in front of the SF County Jail after being released.
James Burch, left, and Christopher Rudd, right, embrace after being arrested during a rally against alleged police brutality on May 6, 2016. They reunite outside the San Francisco County Jail at 850 Bryant St. on May 7, 2016. (All Photos by Natasha Dangond/ Special to The Guardsman)
Jabin, an Oakland local, stands in front of the SF County Jail after being released.
Camille Safiya, a protestor who was arrested at the rally inside City Hall, stands in front of SF County Jail after her release .
City College Journalists Allegedly Battered by Deputies Jornalism Dept. continued from page 1 that she was with the Mission neighborhood newspaper El Tecolote and they released her. M e a n wh i l e, f e l l ow Guardsman photojournalist Natasha Dangond jumped down from the desk she was shooting pictures from to alert the officers that Jones was with the press. Seconds later, Dangond said a sheriff’s deputy grabbed, twisted and pinned her against the same desk she had just been standing on. Video footage shows that the deputy roughly grabbed Dangond and shoved her against the security desk at the front entrance of City Hall. The deputy, identified by multiple sources as Scott Osha, then struck the back of Dangond’s head with his baton in the video.
Dangond was then pulled over the desk and out of frame by a supporter to get her out of the way. Dangond’s press credentials were not visible and said she did not have time to show them before the deputy grabbed her. Dangond later went to the UCSF emergency room where she was cleared of a concussion, but treated for contusions on her arms and head. El Tecolote photographer Joel Angel Juarez said his press credentials were around his neck when he was pushed to the ground by a sheriff's deputy while taking pictures of the protest. 48 Hills reporter Sana Saleem was recording on the front line of the protest when an officer pinned her against the security desk.
“I alerted him (the officer) that I was with the press and that
“What happened to the photographers is outrageous, any interference in their reporting is an infringement on their rights."
—journalism department chair Juan Gonzales
he was hurting me, but he kept pressing his baton against my chest,” Saleem said. The protesters behind
A protester is arrested during a Hunger for Justice SF occupation of City Hall on May 6, 2106. (Photo by Gabriella Angotti-Jones/The Guardsman).
Saleem started yelling at the officer that she was not a protester. “He then put his entire weight on me and told me I could not go anywhere because the protesters are in the way,” Saleem said. Saleem later went to Saint Francis Memorial Hospital where she was diagnosed with a cracked rib that she said will take nine weeks to recover from.
Journalism Community Responds
“What happened to the photographers is outrageous, any interference in their reporting is an infringement on their rights,” Juan Gonzales said, who is the City College journalism department chair. “The journalism department, on behalf of The Guardsman and in coalition with 48hills.com and El Tecolote, will file a joint complaint to the
sherrif ’s department.” The sheriff’s department will provide a phone number and address to anyone who wishes to report police misconduct. “We are encouraging all four, and anyone else who feels that they were treated inappropriately during the demonstration, to file a complaint with our internal affairs office,” said Eileen Hirst, spokesperson for the San Francisco Sheriff's Department. Hirst also told the San Francisco Chronicle that she saw deputies using batons to corral the crowd out of City Hall, but did not see any deputy strike any protesters or journalists.
A protester is arrested and dragged across the floor during a Hunger for Justice SF after-hours occupation of City Hall on May 6, 2016. (Photo by Gabriella Angotti-Jones/The Guardsman).
4 | culture
Vol. 161, Issue 8 | May 11 – May 25, 2016
The Frisco 5 pump their fists into the air as they're cheered by dozens of supporters and a handful of drivers in their lowrider vehicles outside the Mission Police Station on May 1, 2016. (Photo by Santiago Mejia/The Guardsman)
Police threaten to issue parking tickets to lowriders outside the Mission Police Station. (Photo by Gabriella Angotti-Jones/The Guardsman)
Maria Cristina Gutierrez, 66, is kissed by her son and fellow hunger striker Ilyich “Equipto” Sato, 42, outside the Mission Police Station. (Photo by Gabriella AngottiJones/The Guardsman)
Lowriders Occupy Mission Police Station
By Marco Siler-Gonzales
mgonzales@theguardsman.com
The thundering grumble of lowriders ignited the street corridors of Valencia Street as a procession of the restored marvels were brought to rest in front of the Mission Police Station on May 1 in support of the ongoing hunger strike. Benjamin Bac Sierra, a City College English teacher and active member of the Mission District’s lowrider community, led the caravan of “lowrider bombs” from the Cinco de Mayo “Give Something Back Car Show” at John O'Connell
High School to the Mission Police and fro. “We came here to show Station in an act of solidarity with them love. They are my heroes. the five activists who are starving The last time I saw someone do a themselves to demand the resigna- hunger strike was Cesar Chavez,” tion of San Francisco Police Chief Roberto Hernandez said, the Greg Suhr. Impala’s owner and the president “Black and Brown never let of the San Francisco Lowrider us down!” Bac Sierra called out Council. to the crowd in reference to the The lowrider cars parked in communities united against police the red zone where 15 police offiviolence. “Lowriders take over the cers approached the cars at 4:10 Mission Police Station! Viva La p.m. threatening to issue parking Mision!” tickets, shortly after the lowriders The five hunger strikers, now arrived at the station. known as the Frisco Five, clamBac Sierra did not hesitate to bered into a cream-colored 1964 make himself heard. “They’re Chevrolet Impala and raised their ticketing cars because we are fists as hydraulics bounced them to protesting them killing us!” he said.
No tickets were given and the lowriders eventually complied with police orders to vacate the curb. “It wasn’t a surprise (the lowriders) came,” hunger striker Sellassie Blackwell said. “But it was a surprise we held this space as long as we did.” As of May 1, the Frisco Five had gone 11 days without eating. The lowriders are one of many community groups lending support and boosting morale to the strikers. Members from the Nation of Islam were also present on May 1 in solidarity. Cristina Gutierrez, the eldest
hunger striker at 66 years old, was overjoyed to see the lowriders and Nation of Islam assemble behind one movement. “It was unbelievable to see the wives and the babies and the cars coming by and say how they’re so proud of what we're doing,” Gutierrez said. “Then I turn around to see the families from the Nation of Islam who are mostly Black. This is the Black and Brown unity right here. That in itself accomplishes a lot.”
Vol. 161, Issue 8 | May 11 – May 25, 2016
Blanca Medina of Pittsburg shades herself from the sun at the third annual Give Something Back car show at John O'Connell High School.
culture | 5
The tire of a Chevrolet 3100 1947-52 pickup rests in the afternoon sun.
City College English professor Benjamin Bac Sierra holds his brother's etched-weight belt from his time in prison during the 1980s. His brother graduated from City College and encouraged Bac Sierra to enroll. Bac Sierra bought his first lowrider car when he received tenure at City College. (All photos by Gabriella Angotti-Jones/The Guardsman)
Bac Sierra's Monte Carlo is seen parked outside the car show.
Karla Alarco glances behind her from the passenger seat of a lowrider car outside the car show.
6 | opinion
Vol. 161, Issue 8 | May 11 – May 25, 2016
opinion | 7
Vol. 161, Issue 8 | May 11 – May 25, 2016
Moving on and Keeping Promises By Patrick Fitzgerald pfitzgerald@theguardsman.com
This is issue eight of The Guardsman, our last issue of the semester. It also happens to be my last full-time semester at City College, and with any luck, I will have my associate’s degree in journalism. I have been enriched by my college experiences, and for that, I am grateful. I have been empowered by new knowledge and skills to further my ambitions that before were only dreams. Generous teachers and mentors are so accessible at City College. They encourage and nurture our curiosity. They are an estate of opportunity, a willing network to utilize as we go forward in our new careers. Other graduates may echo my delight with graduating for it was challenging to reach the finish line. I have experienced more sleepless nights than I can recount, not for worry but for effort. Many of us will be grateful for more sleep. Every semester there has been a blur of learning and assignments that we still may be absorbing, and we will apply these lessons many times in our new careers. I have never had so many projects, papers and tests to burn through as here, and this effort surprised me as I already have a bachelor’s degree.
I am grateful for the administration and the service employees who kept the lights on and mopped the floors late in the evening. They have shown me it really does take teamwork to create extraordinary learning. Your work was neither wasted nor unappreciated.
This is a shout out to City College to say you are a success regardless of your issues. I am particularly grateful to my teacher, mentor and friend Juan Gonzales, chair of the journalism department. He exemplifies the best at City College as he tenaciously works to create a learning hub, teaching us not only the power but also the responsibilities that are the hallmarks of good journalists. My work as a reporter and editor at The Guardsman has also been rich. It was a crazy-making place because the deadlines were always too soon and the stories barely scratched the surface. Nonetheless, it was highly rewarding to work with others on a myriad of issues that we all
were curious about. Journalism, despite its perceived decline, is thriving as it becomes more adaptive, resilient and tough. Here at City College, I feel the college community confuses journalism and public relations as one and the same when they are not. We need to discern that public relations is sponsored and manufactured media designed to make the subject look good, in this case City College. Whereas journalism is a process meant to uncover the truth which often is not as public relations would neatly make it. It is true that public relations and journalism often coincide, but that is only when truth is the nexus between them. This is a shout out to City College to say you are a success regardless of your issues. Many of us leave here knowing you are flawed, but that only makes us respect you more for fulfilling your mission and promise. You have lived up to your principles of inclusiveness, integrity, innovation, creativity and quality. You have strengthened us with your resources, collegiality and public support while providing an excellent education. I believe we know what it takes to be better global citizens grounded in critical thinking, and we have our eyes clearly focused on the future. And it is with great respect and gratitude that I say my heartfelt thank you to City College. Live long and prosper.
Photo Courtesy of Flickr.com
Always Look on The Bright Side of Life By Shannon Cole scole@theguardsman.com
When I was a petulant child, my dad often replied in song when I complained to him. As an adult, I try to live according to the advice he would sarcastically serenade me with. He would sing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” and whistle with his arms held wide apart at shoulder height, recalling the final scene of surreal comedy troupe Monty Python’s 1979 film “Life of Brian.” The title character Brian is sentenced to death by crucifixion, and a neighbor on a nearby cross, played by the song’s writer Eric Idle, offers a few words of comfort. “Some things in life are bad / They can really make you mad / Other things just make you swear and curse,” Idle sings. There are plenty of things to be mad about right now. Sexism and racism are still rampant in a country with enough uniformed voters to make a Donald Trump presidency a mathematical possibility. Guacamole in a burrito is extra. Tuition still isn’t free. When I’m upset, sad, or just in an extra salty mood, I try to sing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” to get me out of that funk. I have watched
the YouTube video of the final scene of “Life of Brian” more than any other video on that site. The song is a good reminder that you’re in control of what you allow to affect you and how it affects you. You can choose to be outraged, a little disappointed or not affected at all. How you react to something that upsets you is one hundred percent your own choice. You can always choose to look for things on the bright side of life: a patch of vibrant flowers, a charming classic car or making someone else smile. If you’re listening to music and walking outside, look around for dogs that trot to the beat. If you’re really lucky, you can meet a friendly dog who will let you pet them. If dogs aren’t your thing, look for cats in windows or birds on wires. The bright side is there. You just have to look for it. It’s an easy mantra to live by. “If life seems jolly rotten / There's something you've forgotten / And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing / When you're feeling in the dumps / Don't be silly, chumps / Just purse your lips and whistle, that's the thing.” Always look on the bright side of life. You are given a new opportunity to be happy at every moment, so seize it.
Thank You, City College Community By Ms. Bob Davis
100% Black CIIS: URW Clarendon T, Regular, 38.75/46.5pt (kern 10pt) URL: Meta Bold LF, Roman, 34/42pt
100% White CIIS: URW Clarendon T, Regular, 38.75/46.5pt (kern 10pt) URL: Meta Bold LF, Roman, 34/42pt
I want to thank the City College Community for your support following my arrest at the Alameda Renters Coalition demonstration on November 4. It’s not just the Ms. Bob Support Fund, established by AFT 2121, the CCSF faculty union, and the much appreciated donations for my bail bond and fees, it’s also the messages, texts and the concern expressed in brief conversations in the halls and on the sidewalks that have helped me continue as this disagreeable process winds on. I am embarrassed that most of your kind messages have gone unanswered. It’s not for lack of appreciation and I hope that this public
acknowledgement of my gratitude will serve as partial reply and express my sincere thanks.
Ms. Bob Davis has been a City College music teacher since 1976
8 | sports
Vol. 161, Issue 8 | May 11 – May 25, 2016
Addie Martin: Big Woman on Campus Athletic trainer is college's secret champion
By Shannon Cole scole@theguardsman.com
It’s a good day when no one notices Addie Martin. “Unless someone screws up or someone gets really badly injured, no one ever notices me,” Martin said. “I think it’s a good day when no one even knows I exist during a football game.” Though she may be small in stature, the quiet, strong force of sweet maternal energy that is Addie Martin looms large in the halls of City College’s Wellness Center. Martin has served as an athletic trainer for the school parttime since the early 1990s when she began to assist her brother, then-head athletic trainer Jose Bonilla, when she was fresh out of the physical therapy program at San Francisco State. On paper her role is simply that of athletic trainer, but in practice it is much more. Athletic trainers can usually be found on the sidelines of a football game, taping up ankles, icing sprains and tending to cuts and bruises. But Martin’s tasks, aside from her primary role of trainer, vary from filing insurance claims and offering a warm shoulder to cry on. Martin ensures that student athletes at City College are wellconditioned and stay healthy, but to many of them she’s more than just that. “Most of these kids, they all view me as their second mom,” Martin said. “For some of them I’m their first mom.” It’s a role that Martin fills happily as one of the few women in the athletic department support staff. “When someone needs an ear to talk to, advice, or whether it’s school work, professional or personal, I’m always that ear,” Martin said. Martin grew up in the Bay Area and became active in sports when she was a young girl. In high school, she was a two-sport athlete, playing softball and basketball. But in the early days of Title IX implementation, there weren’t many options available to
a young, intelligent athlete who just happens to be female. Martin found her calling in athletics somewhat by accident. “Just by chance I happened to watch a college basketball game when they were featuring the Georgetown Hoyas. At that time, they had a female athletic
to combine her natural compassion and maternal side with her love for sports. “I had been my dad’s interpreter when he went to physical therapy after knee surgery,” Martin said. “I thought that was really cool, what they did—get people better and back to where
tucked into the bottom corner of the Wellness Center, in view of student athletes sprawled across tables in varying degrees of recovery. Her tiny office is plastered with photos of her athletes, family, and souvenirs of her beloved San Francisco Giants. On the door outside Martin’s
With a strong background in physical therapy, City College's athletic trainer Addie Martin has made a name for herself and is in her fifth year with the athletics department at the Ocean Campus. May 9, 2016. (Photo by Franchon Smith/The Guardsman)
trainer. I had no idea what an athletic trainer was. But they did a piece on her, and I thought that was really cool,” Martin said. “I got really interested in sports medicine.” As time would tell, sports medicine proved to be the perfect way
they once were.” Today, that exactly what Martin does. She helps student athletes prevent injuries and makes sure they heal quickly and correctly, and she does it all without fanfare or arrogance. Martin can usually be found
office is a photo snapped during the Rams championship football game in December, which shows Martin tending to an athlete on the sidelines, her expression like a drop of calm in a wild sea of action and emotions. In contrast, her computer’s desktop wallpaper
captures Martin cradling the men’s basketball trophy while wearing the net around her neck like a fine silk scarf. Both images show the many sides of Martin’s personality, at once a humble, hardworking woman and a proud team mom. It is evident in her beaming smile when she discusses the successes of her former athletes, or when she addresses the gaggle of former students-turned-interns who follow her every move around the training room. Martin says the toughest part of the job is telling an athlete that their season, or perhaps even their career, has come to an end due to injury. In her calm, commanding way, Martin will get down on the floor or the grass with her athlete, look him or her in the eye and deliver the devastating news. But because she’s been there before, and experienced it herself, her athletes respect her even more. But Martin’s favorite part of the job is hearing two simple words: thank you. “When you get that little recognition. These guys all came up after the game in December...the thank yous I got from these guys, the thank yous I got from their parents,” Martin said. “I got thank yous from a few coaches, and both our athletic directors thanked me for getting through the season.” It helps to have a token to remember your efforts. Martin just received her fifth ring, a token of gratitude from football coach Jimmy Collins. She’s eagerly awaiting the arrival of her second ring order in three months, this one to commemorate the men’s basketball championship. While her brother Jose may have eight championship rings, Martin happily pointed out the differences between her and her sibling’s legacies: “He never won two championships in the same school year.”
Wellness Center Open for Summer Session By Audrey Garces agarces@theguardsman.com
Students have the opportunity to access the Wellness Center this summer by signing up for the one unit fitness center and fitness swimming classes. Another summer class, Wellness Center community membership, gives students the best of both worlds by granting access to the fitness center and pool facilities. The fitness and swimming classes cost $85 each, but students can enroll in the allencompassing membership class for $90. Fitness Center memberships are exempt from the $15 early enrollment discount. The summer session is six weeks long,
running from June 13 through July 30. The fitness center hours will be limited Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The swimming pool will be open Monday through Friday 7-9:10 a.m. and 12:20-1:25 p.m., and Monday through Thursday 5-6:15 p.m. Students must attend an orientation at the pool area on June 13 for permission to begin using the pool. An online orientation will begin June 10.
The Wellness Center swimming pool will be open for summer classes. (Photo by Franchon Smith/The Guardsman)