Viking News Nov. 17, 2022 Issue 3

VIKING NEWS

When we needed the school most, they didn’t deliver

Afalse active shooter situation on PCC caused a lockdown on Nov. 7, which could have been prevented if the college communicated clearly with those on campus.

For a college that emphasizes how important it is for students to feel safe, their careless ness in protecting students in dire situations brings the integrity of their word into question. The administration was naive in the way they handled the situation believing that they could contain the information from spreading.

Opinion From the Editorial Board

If they say they value students’ safety, why were they careless with their decision to not inform the college’s occupants?

Administration’s lack of clear communication causes lockdown and reveals safety flaws

Photo IllustratIon by

MaIsIe VIlchIs and Matthew walker

Bazter, Zia lead in vote count

A week after the midterm elections and a month after QAnon conspiracy accusations, the latest numbers released for the two races for Board of Trustees show the gap widening amongst Long Beach City College District Members, Virginia Baxter and Sunny Zia.

Baxter, a LBCC Board of Trustees Member for Area No. 5 since 2014, is in the lead at over 60% against Juan-Cepe da Rizo even after Baxter’s recent accu sations of peddling in QAnon conspir acies.

Zia, who is also a LBCC Board of Trustee Member, serving her second term for Area No. 3, is in the lead with 72.94% over Marianne Case.

These are the projected winnings, official results are still being counted.

— Jacqueline Prado

False shooter claim locks down PCC

Pacific Coast Campus was put on lockdown Nov. 7 due to a false threat of an active shooter. Police innitially did not inform campus occupants of the threat that was spread on social media. Althouh they had cleared the threat, the threat continued to spread on social media.

A student called their wife to inform them of the threat, and the wife called the police.

An alert was sent out to the campus saying that PCC was on lockdown, but not all students and staff receieved the notification.

The Viking News has written an editorial to respond to the school’s faulty handling and miscommunication of the situation. This editorial can be read on page

— Maisie Vilchis

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LBCC remembers professor

By MaiSie VilchiS

The LBCC community came together to mourn the death of one of its most be loved faculty members, Wendy Koenig.

“We lost a true force of passion and light,” said Superintendent President Mike Munoz to those who came to pay their re spects in the T Building on Thursday.

As attendees entered the building, they were greeted by tables in which they could leave written regards or view Koenig’s be longings.

The program was centered around the professor’s love for music. Between each speaking portion, memorial and program facilitator Mike Biggs would tell a story to introduce

Koenig’s relationship to a song which was then played for all to listen to in soli darity. The memorial began with Spiritual Healing by Toots and the Maytals, a song from the band she saw at her first concert in Cincinnati.

Koenig’s colleagues, students, friends and family filled the seats for the memori al service. Those who could not make it in person attended the service via Zoom, with many of her past students tuning up from all over the country. One student tuned in all the way from Belfast, Ireland.

Christie Koenig was the first to take to the stand. “She just wanted a normal life and school was a normal life. Sick days were not,” Koenig said.

Koenig’s widow spoke on the challeng es her wife faced while trying to maintain a normal life, saying that she tirelessly kept

up with meetings, classes, and bike riding all while going through chemotherapy. Koenig maintained her “normal life” so well that many of her colleagues were un aware of how sick she actually was.

Student Preston Parsons took the stand next to read multiple letters from other stu dents that were enrolled in Koenig’s class es. A letter from former student Victoria Sandoval Rios read: “Thank you so much for everything Dr. Koenig. You are the light and the love I so desperately needed,”

Parsons read a letter from former stu dent Anna Fitzgerald. “The pureness of who she was remains in the memory of all her students and ripples out to all who cross her path… you will be remembered as one of the most positively influential people in

my life, ‘’ Fitzgerald said in the letter.

By the time Parsons got through all the letters there was not a dry eye in sight within the room. The importance Koenig played in her students’ lives became evi dent as students related their success sto ries to their interactions with her. .

After Koenig’s colleagues and friends got up to speak, the memorial closed out with My Old Kentucky Home, Goodnight by John Prine, the song capable of making even the strong Koenig shed a tear.

Koenig will be burried at Cave Hill Cem etery in Louisville, Kentucky. For those inter ested in helping contribute to Wendy Koe nigs funeral expenses, people can donate to her GoFundMe.

Governor’s rally at LBCC met with protests

By ShelBy TiefenThaler, Veronica TowerS, MaiSie VilchiS

While Governor Newsom was inside LB CC’s gymnasium advocating for the expan sion of abortion rights through Prop.1, pro testers outside the building caused enough chaos to usher in police involvement.

During the rally that took place Nov. 6, Newsom had expressed that the people were at the front of the civil rights battle for reproductive health. Sure enough, the an ti-abortion protesters who showed up were ready for a fight.

“Baby killers” and “murderers” were among the many names the protesters were directing at rally attendees through their megaphone. A few attendees did engage in heated debates about reproductive rights.

that California would not follow suit in other state’s plans for abortion laws. She expressed that California would also remain a sanctu ary for citizens in other parts of the U.S. who won’t have access to abortion following the election.

While Hicks and Newsom gave their speeches, protesters migrated to the corner of Clark Ave. and Carson St. while the cam paign continued inside the LBCC gymna sium.

Anti- and pro-abortion rights protesters stood across the street from each other sur rounded by Long Beach police officers while holding signs and chanting their viewpoints to oncoming traffic and pedestrians.

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The main goal of the campaign that took place was to defend reproductive rights by encouraging voters to choose “yes” on Prop. 1 and select Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.

President and CEO of Planned Parent hood of California Jodi Hicks told the crowd

Matters escalated once pro-abortion rights protester Keyanna Celina was arrested for alleged battery against an anti-abortion protestor. The protester had allegedly screamed in Celina’s face, which resulted in her grabbing a sign out of her adversary’s hands and stomp ing on it repeatedly.

The Nov. 8 elections resulted in the passing of Prop. 1 with 64.9% of voters

selecting “yes.” This percentage is based on the 46% of ballots that have been counted so far in California as of Nov. 15 based on the data from the Associ ated Press.

Cail Carbajal

A memorial was held for art professor Wendy Koeng at LBCC on Nov. 6. Koenig had an 8-month battle with caner before she died at age 56.

NiCk EismaNN

California Gov. Gavin Newsom smiles for a photo with a rally atendee at LBCC.

Services for undocumented students

By nick eismann

As LBCC and other institutions across the country return to in-person learning, counselors within the DREAM services hope to foster a culture of connection with students individually, not only through ac ademic counseling, but through fulfilling social needs as well.

A workshop was hosted on Oct. 19 in the Social Justice Inter-cultural Center (SJIC) where undocumented students were able to gather and get to know some of the services offered to them.

Israel Carrasco has hopes and aspira tions of advancing to a career in computer engineering, but has been hindered by be ing unsure of his out of state options, hav ing few scholarships offered, and the con stant rejection he dealt with from jobs and internships because of his documentation status.

For students like Carrasco, choosing a college to attend and navigating the maze of higher education has a few extra chal lenges involved.

“There’s a lot of internships that pop up… I would really like to get into them,” Carrasco said. Finding the internship op portunity is just the start, and he finds himself unable to complete the application process due to questions regarding social security or is rendered ineligible due to his status.

“Things like that just exclude you,” Car rasco said.

He found himself in the SJIC with Jose Gutierrez, a counselor at Long Beach City College, obtaining resources and guidance to assist him in his journey at the school.

He started his involvement with LBCC about three years ago and was tasked with building support infrastructure for undoc umented students. Since his time here, he has pushed initiatives such as providing technology and laptops to students in need as well as providing stipends to campus involved students who are restricted from

working due to their status.

“The biggest challenge for them is just being a student in general, having to do with their undocumented status and know ing that they can’t apply like any other stu dent to a job or a work study,” Gutierrez said.

Growing up in a culture different from the American norm can already present challenges, add to that the status of un documented and instill a sense of shame as well.

“I tried to hide it,” Mendoza said. “In high school I didn’t mention I was in this situation… I don’t talk about it with my professors, or my admins, or my classmates because it’s not an easy topic to talk about.”

Mendoza was very happy to return to in-person learning and instruction but

found it hard to find community alongside his peers. He hopes to find community with other undocumented students through the very same workshops and mixers put on by DREAM services that afternoon.

“As we’re coming back [from COVID-19] we certainly want to build that community presence to let them know ‘Hey, there’s stu dents like you’, ” Gutierrez said.

Linda Olmos, who has been an active member in the undocumented community since a young age and is currently serving as the manager for systems impacted stu dents, mirrored the sense of importance to get students connected with campus life.

“Here the goal is building community for our students,” said Olmos “Once that connection is established, students begin to thrive.”

Social life issues aside, LBCC’s DREAM services also hope to ease the long and often confusing process of receiving doc umentation. Through the makings of per sonal connections, immigration attorneys and general legal counsel, students are able to seek out and access the help they need.

Nelson Casarrubias is one of the stu dents taking advantage of these legal con nections and has found great refuge and comfort in the services offered to him.

“These lawyers are pretty good,” Casar rubias said, “They’ll consult with you, you can tell them anything personal that’s going on in your life.”

DREAM services hopes to make the process easier and provide everything that a student might need to have the highest possible chance of success.

LBUSD and LBCC unify to employ future teachers

By Jeanette Lem

Students from Long Beach’s Poly, Mil likan and Jordan high schools can take part in a new pathway to obtain careers in edu cation as a result of a new program.

The program, known as “Grow Your Own” will allow students to enroll in teach ing education or child development cours es at LBCC for free.

Long Beach Unified School District ini tiated this program due to a teacher short age that has been exacerbated by the pan demic. “Grow Your Own” hopes to acquire more teachers in the district by hiring the high school students who partake in the

program.

The district also hopes the program will diversify its future faculty members since it is reaching out to students in different areas of Long Beach.

“If you look at the current faculty and teachers, they aren’t as diversified as the community,” said Megan Kaplinsky, a professor of education and coordinator of teacher preparation at LBCC.

“We thought we’d drill down to our own diverse group of students to inspire and motivate them to consider teaching pathways and come back to teach in the district,” Kaplinsky said.

Beginning their sophomore year, stu dents can take up to 12 college units in

the field of education. After they com plete these units and graduate high school, LBUSD will grant them a contract to come back and work for the district.

The contract entails that students will need to receive a Bachelor’s degree and earn their teaching credentials in order to be hired. Students can choose to take ca reers in teaching, counseling, school psy chology or any other administrative roles.

For years, LBCC has offered dual en rollment for high school students, but “Grow Your Own” takes dual enrollment to a new level by offering a guaranteed job after following the pathway.

“There is a college pathway for almost every career area but not for education,”

said David Zaid, who is LBUSD’s assistant superintendent of human resources.

“We want to attract students to this field by allowing them to get a head start on classes in high school and start exploring the different careers in teaching.”

“Grow Your Own” has already received an overwhelming response from students wishing to enroll. The district will soft launch the program next spring, with plans of eventually expanding the program to more high schools and increasing enroll ment space.

High schools have already begun in troducing this program, but any Poly, Mil likan, or Jordan students who are interested can speak with their counselor.

Nick EismaNN

A student provides feedback on activities that could get her peers more active within Long Beach City College’s campus life.

Men’s soccer

The Vikings men’s soccer team lost in the South Coast Conference semifi nals against Cerritos on Nov. 8, ending their season with a record of 3 wins, 4 ties and 3 losses this season.

The team will face off in the second round of the CCCAA State Playoffs this Saturday against Chaffey.

Football

Viking’s football has had a back and forth season, with 2 wins and 3 losses in conference, and 5 wins and 5 losses overall.

The Vikings have a scoring average of 24.6 points per game and an average of 370.8 yards per game. They lost against Canyons this past Saturday 31-24.

Men’s water polo

Men’s water polo has had an intense season, dominating the pool with 7 wins and no losses this conference season.

The Viking’s average 16.57 goals per game and 23.7 shots per game. Their de fense has been unmatched only allow ing 56 goals against them in conference.

The men placed third overall in the SoCal Regionals tournament this past weekend after a strong performance from the Vikings.

Women’s volleyball

The Vikings have had a rough sea son this year, only securing 2 wins in conference and 10 losses.

They have a record of 3 wins and 16 losses overall this year.

The Vikings defeated Cerritos on Tuesday 3 sets to 2, which gained them one more win for the conference season.

Cross country

The Viking’s Cross Country team closed out a successful 2022 season this Saturday at the CCCAA State Champi onships in Fresno at Woodward Park.

The Vikings women’s team qualified for the second year in a row to the State Championships.

Two members of the men’s team, Riki Moscoso and Noah Macias, qual ified this year for the State Champion ships as individuals.

The women placed 13th at the SoCal Regional Championships and the men placed 16th.

Water polo takes 4th in regionals

Craig roberts

Through early aggression and keeping the ball moving in the two meter zone, the Vikings were able to score six points in the first period. It wasn’t until the end of the period that Golden West scored their first goal.

Many of the Vikings had various op portunities to score with six players scoring in the first half alone, some even scoring several times.

Several of the goals that LBCC scored were made on an open goal, with some happening back to back.

The goal was left vulnerable after a sud den change in possession with the goalie

for GWC playing too far forward, which was punished almost every time with a ball to the back of the net.

When it became evident that the game was out of reach after halftime, coach Chris Oeding of the Vikings was seen letting the team operate on its own while sitting back and watching.

The team never slowed down and con tinued to take shots at the goal all the way up to the final moments.

“We took it one game at a time to fo cus,” said Sydney Brouwer, “I really like just swimming and moving the ball by coun tering. I’d just make sure we had the ball where it needed to be and away from where it didn’t need to be.”

LBCC certainly did this as they con stantly kept the ball near the goal when in possession and out of the four meter zone when defending most times.

“We went into this hoping to apply our game plan. We knew that we needed to lim it their key offensive assets and build mo mentum to win,” coach Oeding said after speaking candidly with GWC coach Matt Flesher.

The Vikings fell to Orange Coast Col lege 10-7 on Saturday after a strong battle in the semifinals.

After a long season, the team placed fourth in the SoCal Regionals after losing to Fullerton in the third place match 15-6.

Women’s soccer loses in pentalties

LBCC women’s soccer team lost in a penalty shootout, resulting in a final score of 5-4 after finishing full time scoreless to Mt. San Antonio College in the South Coast Conference Tournament final on Friday at El Camino College.

Even though the Vikings’ goalkeeper Vivian Toomey saved the Mounties’ third shot during the shootout. LBCC was de feated after missing their sixth penalty kick.

The Vikings had eight shots in total, testing the keeper once, with the Mounties taking 10 shots and having Toomey make four saves.

Both sides committed 30 fouls in total, with two yellow cards being handed out to either team.

Going into the match, the Vikings were on a 6-game winning streak after defeating El Camino 3-0 in the semi-finals on Tues day. Mt. SAC was on a 16-game winning streak with their win over Rio Hondo in the other semi-final matchup.

Earlier in the conference season, LBCC lost 1-0 at Mt. SAC with the game being dominated by the home team.

“Last time we played this team, we came out nervous and gave them more opportu nities than they even got close to today. We did a really good job of playing them differ ently and we had the line share of opportu nities,” LBCC coach Eduardo Nunes said. “We played them way better than last time and that’s what I want out of this.”

Early on in the game, the Vikings were close in the 2nd minute to opening the scoreline as forward Genesis Lopez hit the crossbar from a header.

In the 11th and 12th minutes, Viking forwards Evelyn Sandoval and Genesis Lo pez each had their shot attempts go wide of the goal.

For the rest of the first half, both teams could not break each other’s defense. LBCC came close to scoring with Diana

Leon being played a through ball behind the Mounties’ defense that ended up being called off for offside.

The second half was a mirror to how the first half finished, as neither team could score.

LBCC midfielder, Adelia Villasenor, took an opportunity outside of the penal ty box with her shot being caught by the Mountie’s goalkeeper.

With only a few minutes remaining of what seemed like a stalemate, a break through was made as Mt. SAC forward Veronica Aquino dribbled towards the goal, going past two Vikings defenders, but could only hit the inside of the woodwork, rebounding the ball back to Toomey.

Full time ended with a score of 0-0 which meant that the match would be de cided in a penalty shootout.

Vikings forward Genesis Lopez took the first penalty shot of the game, which was blocked as the Mounties were able to score theirs and take the lead.

The second penalty saw both teams scoring, with the third being saved by Vi

kings goalkeeper Toomey diving left as midfielder Villasenor put the Vikings level at 2-2.

The rest of the penalties were scored, but the 6th penalty would be the decider, with Vikings midfielder Aimee McSparren hitting her shot wide of the goal and Mt. SAC scoring their last penalty to win 5-4 and become SCC Champions.

As heartbreaking as it is to lose on pen alties, the Vikings were positive as they ran to their goalkeeper to celebrate together, putting out a hard-fought performance against an opposition ranked #3 in the state.

“I am honestly not too upset about it because I think that we played well and were the better team,” goalkeeper Toom ey said of the defeat.“We had possession throughout the entire game and just need ed to execute our chances.”

After 19 games, the Viking’s overall re cord is now 15-2-3.

The Vikings will play again on Saturday in the first round of the CCCAA Playoffs following the play in round on Thursday.

MarCo Haynes

Marco Haynes

Vikings forward Evelyn Sandoval, right, attempts to push Mounties defender Ynneli Gon zalez-Soriano, left, off of the ball during the second half.

Introducing LBCC’s E-Sports program

By Matthew walker

Going into the final match of the night against the third placed team in its league, the score tied 1-1, the seventh-seed inaugu ral LBCC League of Legends e-sports team achieved a clutch victory over its opponent, making the playoffs in its first season.

“I feel nervous, even after we win,” LBCC esports player Fernando Gatica said, after achieving victory in the third and final match of Wednesday evening.

But where does the new esports pro gram come from?

The program begins and ends with di rector of esports Gabe Giangualano, a soc cer player turned teacher turned esports coach, who started the program at St. John Bosco a couple years before starting up the LBCC esports program this year.

“Over the period of three years, you start with a kid and then you watch them grow and you actually watch them develop into a very good esports player,” Gianguala no said, “and so by the time a player is done with me, is moving onto the next stage, I want to have someplace they can go to play at the next tier.”

With this mindset, Giangualano reached out to LBCC’s Athletic Director Randy Totorp to share his vision for the program, and the rest is history.

“We basically hit the ground running,” LBCC League of Legends coach Derek Bar raza said. “We got approval in July or Au gust and we had to start try-outs the same week.”

The LBCC e-sports program is divided into four teams, each of which play their own game, including League of Legends, Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege, and even Rocket League, a game about cars playing soccer.

Each champion fulfills one of five roles, which include “Tanks,” “Support,” “Jun glers,” “ADCs” (Attack-Damage Carries) and “APCs” (Ability-Power Carries).

Coach Barraza refuted a number of misconceptions about esports.

“People think that it’s just guys sitting around playing video games and eating Doritos in their basement without seeing the light of day, but that’s not the case,” Bar raza said.

He continued, “We’ve got players on the team that are athletes in other sports, they are academics, they’re scholars, they come from all walks of life.”

Giangualano encourages players to train their minds, even filling the room with various board games to give players the chance to flex their critical thinking muscles in creative ways.

Though a sharp mind is very important to esports success, the physical training is also essential.

“All four of our teams have different training regiments,” Giangualano said. “We have weekend workouts where the entire program gets together and we go do track

and weight room together, it helps release endorphins and sharpen our skills.”

With the program being so new, there is no standing lab on campus to accommo date the technological needs of a competi tive esports team.

The players instead have to commute to St. John Bosco High School. Plans to break ground on an esports facility at LBCC have been made, but nothing is fully confirmed as of yet.

Being a community college program battling against four-year institutions, there are some unique challenges, such as not having as much player consistency, with an average two year turnaround on players.

But unlike more traditional sports, an advantage of esports is the ability to play remotely, with a number of the players choosing to play from home instead of traveling to the St. John Bosco esports lab.

Even with this being the inaugural se mester of the program combined with a short two-day tryout period, each of the four teams have made it to their own re spective playoffs.

Four League of Legends players, all of which wore their own red and white sports jerseys, were on the St. John Bosco cam pus on Wednesday for their match against Harper College Hawks Junior Varsity.

This included LBCC players Fernan do Gatica, Vicente Gonzalez, Jared Lewis, and Samuel Martinez, though more players participated in the game remotely.

Gatica, who has played League of Leg ends since 2012 and currently fulfills the team’s Support role, spoke on challenges at the beginning of the semester.

“We had a week of tryouts and it was so sudden that we missed the first week of preseason,” Gatica said. “We only had one week to test the waters as a team before the season started.”

As the season has gone on, both the communication and comradery of the players have improved according to Lewis, who plays the ADC role on the team.

“We’ve grown a lot since the first days, which especially shows in our teamwork right now,” Lewis said. “Our strategies and just our play-making has shifted from play ing for ourselves to more playing for each other as a team.”

Martinez, who plays the Jungler role for LBCC, spoke on how critical effective com munication is.

“Communication is essential,” Marti nez said. “You cannot win a game without being able to communicate effectively.”

St. John Bosoco’s esports lab also acts as the practice grounds for the high school team, with some LBCC players doubling as their coaches.

Brandon Walker and Elijah Gianguala no are both Valorant players for the LBCC team and coaches for the St. John Bosco High School team, and both former soccer players.

When asked about what it takes to be an esports player, both tackled misconcep tions surrounding the program.

“It’s just like gaming the way profession al soccer is just soccer, it’s on a whole differ ent level,” Walker said. “You can choose to take it seriously.”

“And those people who take it seriously, put in the hours and it shows,” Elijah Gi

angualano added.

“If you want to go pro and you’re not taking it seriously, there’s no chance,” Walk er finished.

Giagualano, a coach for the high school League of Legends team focuses on break ing bad habits, developed when players first learned the game.

“It takes a lot of time, and patience,” Paul Giangualano said. “A lot of my players are just starting, so having the patience to teach them the right way to do things rath er than the way they’re so used to is vital.”

The program’s next big event will be the Grim Cup, a live event occurring Nov. 1920, to be held on stage in the auditorium at St. John Bosco.

Photos By Matthew walker

League of Legends player manager Paul Giangualano, top right, coaches the high school League of Legends team and LBCC student Samuel Martinez, bottom right, plays in his team’s first of three League of Legends games inside room 229 of St. John Bosco High School on Oct. 9, 2022.

Board Editorial: from page 1

The college waited until a student saw the threat on social media, the police were called and the campus was put on lockdown before they decided to alert students and faculty, many of which did not receive any form of notifica tion.

Superintendent-President Mike Munoz and the LBPD were made aware of a threat circling the Internet hours before the lockdown but did not announce that it was being investigated and deemed it false.

The lack of transparency through vague emails and failure to disclose the initial threat are signs of a failing relationship between the LBCC administration and population.

While they stayed silent, the threat made its way around social media. This landed on the screen of a student who then exchanged mes sages with his wife regarding the threat and claimed the campus to be on lockdown. The wife then called LBPD about an active shooter despite there not being one.

Due to human errors in setting up their emergency response system, not all students and staff were notified once the lockdown was placed or lifted. The ones that did receive emails were met with vague warnings to shelter in place.

Aside from human error in execution, there

was poor planning in the choice of delivery for emergency warnings. A select few received text messages, but this was in no way the majority of the school’s population. Most received updates on the situation through email, a form of com munication that is typically unchecked or only checked at scheduled times throughout the day.

Using email as the main delivery method of alerts and notifications was not the best way to notify the college community. Students and staff were not receiving equal amounts of noti fications, with some not receiving any notifica tion at all.

A more practical way would be a mass alert sent via text that is sure to reach all campus oc cupants at the same time.

The first email that went out alerting stu dents that police had initiated a lockdown pro cedure had the subject line “Long Beach City College - General”, which does not give a sense of urgency to the matter. Even recent emails going out, such as the promotion of the then upcoming dance ensemble, were made clearer and more noticeable, reading the subject line “Special Announcement.”

In an attempt to shed more light on the situ ation, the Viking went to PCC but were initial ly turned away from a meeting that would be made public minutes later by the Interim Chief

VIKING NEWS POLICIES

Innovation Officer, Tracy Carmichael.

Student reporters learned of the public meeting through an email that was released moments later, resulting in 13 minutes of in formation being missed that could have been shared with the public.

The Viking was blocked from performing its duty as a news source for the college because of the lack of transparency and communication from administrators. This is yet another exam ple of unacceptable behavior on behalf of LBCC in the time of an emergency.

24 hours later the school sent out a preven tion plan which mentioned renovations being made to their emergency response system, but the school still failed to address the biggest problem at hand. Administration, not making the false threat public, which led to the series of events exposing these failures.

Although they updated their prevention plan, there is no evidence of reform.

Reform needs to be seen in the amount of resources dedicated to emergency response, in the training that administration receives in cri sis response and in the way the college commu nicates with those on campus.

The flaws exposed on Nov. 7 are absolutely unacceptable. This should have never happened in the first place and it cannot happen again.

Editor-in-chief: Maisie Vilchis

Managing editor: Craig Roberts Shelby Tiefenthaler

News editors: Nick Eismann Jeanette Lem

Lifestyle and Opinion editors: Andrew Martinez Desary Vailencour Matthew Walker

Sports editors: Emily D’Amico Soderek San Staff Cain Carbajal Juleah Corzantes Lesly Gonzalez Cesar Gonzalez-Mata Marco Haynes Paul Jimenez Jacqueline Prado Davis Ramage Veronica Towers Rene Trujillo Jr.

Adviser: Walter Hammerwold

Photo and online adviser: Chris Viola

Nick EismaNN

Mike Munoz, front right, and Tracy Carmichael, back right, walk with a Long Beach Police officer at the Pacific Coast Campus. LBPD responded to a 911 call claiming there was an active shooter on campus when there wasn’t.

LIFESTYLE

Art gallery lends hand to migrants

By Juleah Corzantes

The gallery event themed “Cuidate Mucho” celebrated the start of the three-month exhibition on Thursday, Oct. 27, and will run until Dec. 3. This gallery was held in the K building at the Liberal Arts Campus at Long Beach City College.

Students, faculty and residents of Long Beach filled up the room, taking in the portraits, paintings, interactive pieces.

At the entrance of the gallery, a painting of hands hold ing up peace signs form a star atop a mirror in the middle of the display. This was intended to give the impression that a community can form true peace by coming togeth er and that making an actual change does not always have to be scary, but can bring a renewed sense of care for one another.

Another art display allowed the audience to contrib ute to the piece. A table was full of large Ziploc bags filled with basic needs essentials for men, women, babies and LGBTQ+ member. Under the table, there was a box open for donations for the community to help refugees fleeing their countries and have the essentials ready for them after their tiresome journey.

The gallery’s goal is to fill the box completely with es sential goods and be able to provide enough for migrants to be welcomed with supplies that are desperately needed.

“The essentials are being shipped to a church on the East Coast in Brooklyn, New York that will then be de livered to a shelter specifically for new refugees who have nothing, but the clothes on their backs,” says Michael En

eybw, a student and art volunteer.

The display had posters leading with the phrase “I’m collecting items for migrants…”and different groups would list a variation of specific need based items. For example, a poster for basic needs for babies lists the need for wipes, diapers, socks, beanies, formula and squeeze foods.

Two months ago, the campus welcomed a new curator and art director, Karla Aguiniga, who quickly transformed the empty space and brought it back to life by organizing the gallery that took place.

“The show came together by first questioning myself, what could I bring to the space that has been empty for more than two years?” Aguiniga said.

“There’s a lot of new on-campus students this semester here or coming in from online learning that haven’t seen the art gallery as well as those who missed pieces of college life experience such as seeing art shows and viewing what their peers and community can create,” Aguiniga said.

Aguiniga explained her role as a curator and her goals for fulfilling the new position.

Professor’s life shaped by Ghana fieldwork

By Matthew walker

Imagine spending so much time in another country that you ingrain yourself into the local community. When you re turn home, that home has become alien to you. That is the experience of Ama Boakye wa, a LBCC anthropology professor who undertook fieldwork in Ghana and learned to integrate herself into the community while researching a centuries old shrine with great importance to Ghanaian culture.

“You have to make the strange familiar, in order to live in a place, in order to absorb a place directly…Whatever was strange when I first went into the field became very familiar by the time I left, in fact, I didn’t even want to leave Ghana, I was so com fortable,” Boakyewa said.

As part of her anthropology education, Boakyewa undertook fieldwork in Ghana, a country in West Africa which she was

familiar with after having both visited and learned the language before her field work.

“It helped the fact that I had traveled to Ghana several times before my fieldwork, I had already known the culture, I knew people there, I knew the protocol,” said Boakyewa.

“That’s probably the most important thing, you have to know the protocol,” she added.

Boakyewa spent all of 2008 within Gha na, spending eight weeks beforehand in in tensive language training.

“After that one year, I felt I was more Ghanaian than I was American… that’s what happens to anthropologists,” Boakye wa said.

The type of experience that Boakyewa referred to is known as “culture shock” and occurs when entering another culture, and then again when returning to your own culture.

Matthew walker

Doctor Ama Boakyewa points at Ghana on a map inside her room at the Liberal Arts Cam pus. Boakyewa spent an entire year in Ghana as part of her anthropological fieldwork.

Desary Vailencour

A ceramic display of hands to symbolize coming together can be seen in the art gallery at the Liberal Arts Campus. The gallery opened under new director, Karla Aguiniga who has quickly moved to bring the gallery back to life and curate it.

By Maisie Vilchis

Bloody thighs and bruises are two things most people avoid at all cost, but this is not the case for Sk8 Dojo, a group of mostly women who ramp skate on eight wheels. Long Beach is a home to these roller skaters, a hardcore community that doubles as a haven for women of color and queer folk.

On Sunday, Sk8 Dojo hosted a com petition for the local community dubbed, “Game of Skate”. The event, hosted at Mi chael K. Green Skatepark, was sponsored by Habitat for Humanity and State Farm with a $500 Visa gift card as a prize for the winner.

Although the event was competitive in nature, participants could be heard repeat edly saying that it was just for fun, and all the skaters rooted for each other with con gratulatory high-fives and cheers whether the competitor landed a trick or not.

“It’s a very independent sport that can be shared with others … when you get the community involved it’s even more fun be cause we have a little bit more of a challenge and more support where you wouldn’t have found that if you were by yourself,” Karen Cruz said, also known by her skate name, Karen the Karrot.

The event also gave away free childsized skates, along with backpacks and safety gear to all guests in attendance. Many of the older skaters took these giveaways in order to pass them out to children at their local skate parks, encouraging a new gener ation of roller skaters.

“Long Beach is a Mecca for roller skat ing and inlines,” said Victoria Hernan dez, founder of the rollerskating based non-profit Sk8 Dojo. Hernandez continued and said, “People from all over the world come to skate here.”

Long Beach is home to many popular skate locations, such as Junipero Ave. Hill, which leads to Alamitos Beach, Houghton Park in North Long Beach, and Michael K. Green Park in the Washington neighbor hood.

Nicknamed “Ghetto Park,” Michael K. Green Park has become a spot frequented by roller skaters. The park had previously been neglected, as holes and graffiti took over the ramps making them almost unus able.

With the help of Habitat for Humanity, Hernandez has been able to help maintain and improve the park for everyone, by get ting the holes fixed in the ramps and add ing cement pathways to the park.

Sk8 Dojo has tasked itself with keeping the Michael K. Green Skatepark clean and usable for the community, while also lead ing events that serve the skate community. Hernandez was originally using money out of her own pocket to clean the park until she got a Small Sparks grant from Habitat for Humanity to help fund the project.

To put it simply, Long Beach is a roller skate haven.

SKATE

HAVEN

skaters

How a community of

has helped to rebuild the Washington Park neighborhood

Photo By Maisie Vilchis Angie Luna rides the mini ramp at Micheal K. Green Skate Park during the “Game of Sk8” competition on Nov. 13 hosted by Sk8 Dojo.