On May 18, activists from the San Diego chapter of Women Organized to Resist and Defend and the Black Female Advisory Board led a coalition of concerned students, staff, and community of Southwestern Community College, located in Chula Vista, in an action condemning campus police and their complicity in perpetuating rape culture at the school.
Multiple cases of sexual assault on this campus have not been investigated. Several sexual assault cases involved campus police officers as perpetrators. The Sun, the school newspaper, has reported on a lawsuit being filed by a student who worked in the campus police department for two years, during which she endured severe sexual harassment culminating in an attempted gang rape by three officers. This article was part of a special edition of the newspaper focusing on the issue of rape and sexual assault on campus. According the The Sun, another student is planning a similar suit. The special edition is replete with students’ experiences with sexual assault, including a stunning failure on the part of campus police “safety” escorts to even show up.
In addition, the school has been illegally out of compliance with Title IX for over a year, lacking even a Title IX officer to enforce this important anti-sexist legislation.
Protest draws a crowd
WORD activists led chants in front of the campus police station, quickly drawing a crowd of students, faculty, and staff brandishing signs and shouting their outrage with the ongoing abuse of women on campus. The crowd then moved to occupy the square in front of Mayan Hall where several speakers took the top of the stairs.
Members of students government as well as BFAB activists let their voices be heard; the words and chants of the crowd echoed across the square and drew the attention of campus police. The demands of the speakers were clear: an end to police negligence and predatory behavior towards the students at Southwestern and the appointment of a Title IX officer. The call for students to stand up to predatory officers was met by cheers from the crowd; their stories of ineffectual, ignorant, and abusive officers were rightly met with the crowd’s disgust.
Perhaps the greatest disgust was reserved for the narrative of student Francesca Beaird who came forward to tell of being sexually assaulted in broad daylight at Southwestern as the police did nothing. Her story was the epitome of what enraged the protesters: the police are not here to protect us, and the actions of the Southwestern police department as well as campus administration make this plain to all.
Once finished with their speeches, the event organizers led the crowd to march down Jaguar Walk (followed by a police cruiser) towards the Cesar E. Chavez building, disrupting “de-stress” week activities with cries for justice.
The crowd congregated in front of a pair of campus police tabling for the police academy. There, WORD. and BFAB led more chants and called on any onlookers to join the crowd and stand for the cause. Cries of shame directed at the tabling police were followed by a resounding chant: “Protect us or leave!”Rather tellingly, almost as an admission of guilt, the unnerved officers packed up their table and ran.
The protest organized by WORD and BFAB struck a deep vein on campus. The campus paper, The Sun, has requested that WORD provide a statement to be published. This struggle sheds light on the true nature of the police: not protectors but perpetrators.
