Pierce College Suspends 3 Students for Fight With Anti-War Protesters

Three Pierce College students who were arrested after they clashed with demonstrators protesting American military action in the Persian Gulf have been suspended pending an administrative investigation into the incident.

Art Hernandez, dean of students, said Friday that the students might have broken four of 17 Los Angeles Community College District codes governing student conduct, including committing battery against students and faculty members, making verbal threats and disturbing the peace on campus.

Campus police arrested the students--Joe Quintos, 21; Donovan Curtis, 20; and football team member Leon Glasgow, 18--on suspicion of battery during a Jan. 10 demonstration by about 300 anti-war protesters on the Woodland Hills campus.

The fight started at the beginning of the demonstration when a small number of students, including Quintos, Curtis and Glasgow, blocked the path of the anti-war activists as they began marching across the campus. Although the scuffle lasted only about a minute, participants on both sides were knocked down.

Pierce President Dan Means said he immediately suspended Quintos, Curtis and Glasgow and appointed Hernandez to investigate their actions. A hearing before a panel that includes a student, counselor and administrator is required before any disciplinary action can be taken against the students. No date for the hearing has been set.

Hernandez said it is unlikely that the students will be expelled. He declined to speculate on what other types of disciplinary action might be taken, but football coach Bill Norton said Glasgow could be removed from the team.

Minutes before the fight erupted, the counterdemonstrators identified themselves as football team members. But Norton said only Glasgow is on the team.

The coach said he has left the decision to Means as to whether to allow Glasgow to continue playing football at Pierce. But he said if there are other such incidents involving football players, he will remove them from the team. Football players can participate in demonstrations as long as they aren’t involved in violence, he added.

Although they have been suspended, the students were allowed to take final exams now under way, Hernandez said. He added that the trio can appeal any disciplinary action decided by Pierce administrators to the district board of trustees.

Quintos, Curtis and Glasgow could not be reached for comment.