Protest staged as more victims go public

Students share stories of alleged harassment



OUTCRY—Gia Saputo attends a protest against alleged inaction from staff concerning sexual harassment on campus Dec. 15 at Moorpark College. MICHAEL COONS/ Acorn Newspapers

OUTCRY—Gia Saputo attends a protest against alleged inaction from staff concerning sexual harassment on campus Dec. 15 at Moorpark College. MICHAEL COONS/ Acorn Newspapers

Chanting “We don’t feel safe” and “Where’s your Title IX?,” approximately 70 Moorpark College students marched from the school’s hilltop teaching zoo to its busiest street corner Dec. 15 to protest what they say is a lack of action by college officials concerning several alleged sexual harassment cases and Title IX violations.

The students’ latter chant refers to a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination, including sexual harassment, in any education program that receives federal government funding.

Spearheading last week’s march was Isabella Rojas, a sophomore theater major who has been vocal about the sexual harassment she said she’s experienced on campus and her frustration with the school’s handling of the situation once she filed a complaint.

“I am so proud of everyone here because we’re here for a reason and we are going to have our voices heard,” she said at the protest. “We’re fighting this fight, and change is going to happen.”

 

 

Even before the demonstration, additional students had come forward to share their stories by posting to social media, speaking at public meetings or talking with the Acorn and the Moorpark College Reporter, the campus newspaper, which first reported on the issue.

While some students have accused at least two other men, all four women who have chosen to speak with the Acorn say the same 26-year-old male student harassed each of them. In one case, the man allegedly physically assaulted the woman.

According to two of the women, the only action the college took after receiving their Title IX violation reports was to issue a written directive telling them and the man to avoid one another.

But that order, perceived as too mild by the women, wasn’t followed, the women say. According to them, the man continued to follow them around campus, waited for them at the bottom of stairwells, visited their classes and talked about at least one student when she was within earshot.

GRIEVANCE—At left, Karly Elyse, center, holds back tears as she attends a demonstration to protest alleged inaction from Moorpark College staff concerning sexual harassment on campus Dec. 15 on the corner of Collins and Campus Park drives in Moorpark. Above, dozens of students walk back to campus following the protest. Photos by MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers

GRIEVANCE—At left, Karly Elyse, center, holds back tears as she attends a demonstration to protest alleged inaction from Moorpark College staff concerning sexual harassment on campus Dec. 15 on the corner of Collins and Campus Park drives in Moorpark. Above, dozens of students walk back to campus following the protest. Photos by MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers

The fourth women who spoke with the Acorn has not yet filed a Title IX report, but is in the process of doing so, she said.

A pattern

Rojas, who shared her story in last week’s edition of the Moorpark Acorn, and another theater student, Olivia Vazquez, approached Dean Priscilla Mora, the campus Title IX coordinator, with concerns regarding the 26-year-old man in March.

“It started becoming common knowledge that (the 26-year-old student) was an issue,” Vazquez told the Acorn. “And then it got to me.”

Vazquez, 19, said she overheard the man make suggestive comments to another student, his dance class partner. He then moved his attention to her, she said.

At a theater rehearsal, while Vazquez was removing part of her costume backstage in order to attach her microphone, the man made eye contact with her before staring at her exposed body for the entirety of the change, despite her turning away to avoid his eyes as much as possible, she said.

“It’s theater etiquette to look away when someone is doing a quick change or getting a mic on,” she explained.

After the incident, Vazquez had to act a scene with the student, who pushed his chair close to hers and rested his leg against hers, she said.

About two weeks after filing her complaint with Mora, Vazquez received a directive from the college similar to Rojas’ that said she and the man should avoid one another.

Talia Guzman also has complained to Mora about the man. She was 18 when he allegedly assaulted her in a car. Because the car was parked off campus, the incident did not qualify as a Title IX violation, which Mora explained when Guzman first approached her, the student said.

Guzman was told she could go to the police, but that was where help from the school stopped, despite an apparent district policy to investigate such incidents even if they take place off of school grounds.

“The district responds to and investigates all reports of sexbased discrimination, including sexual violence and harassment, regardless of whether a student has filed a complaint, and regardless of the location of the incident, if it interferes with a student’s education,” Ventura County Community College District spokesperson Sarene Wallace said via email.

Because the man began approaching Guzman on campus and continued making her feel unsafe, Guzman returned to Mora to file a Title IX complaint; however, although Guzman believes she filed the complaint, she said she does not think she ever received a written report or directive like the other filers. In her case, the man continued to park near her car.

She, like the others, is frustrated by what they see as a lack of action by the school.

“Do we have to wait until he assaults someone on campus?” Guzman asked.

Tyler Alexander, 22, met the accused student during a summer ballet class. Alexander said they became friends, but eventually he made inappropriate comments about her body during routines.

Those comments made her uncomfortable, as did the time he allegedly told both her and a professor that he had sexually assaulted someone. Alexander said she’s now in the process of filing a Title IX complaint.

Due to privacy issues, the Acorn has been unable to confirm rumors the man was served a two-day suspension in the spring.

Attempts to contact the man have been unsuccessful.

As well, questions sent last week to VCCD’s Wallace regarding review of the school’s directives, policies for non compliance of the directives and its following of Title IX grievance procedures were left unanswered by press time.

Editor’s note: Next week the Acorn will examine Title IX itself, and the school’s follow-through on the law’s prescribed grievance investigation process.