Topics / EDUCATION : Latino Club Leader Quits in Bias Dispute

The president of a Latino student group at Mt. San Antonio College resigned after a white student filed a grievance against the club, accusing it of discrimination.

The controversy erupted after Nicole Lemottee approached Valentin Pingarron, then president of Movimiento Estudantil Chicano De Aztlan (MEChA), during club sign-up day on Feb. 2. Lemottee, an 18-year-old marine biology major, said she had been interested in joining the club because she is engaged to a Mexican American man.

Lemottee said, however, she had some misgivings about speakers sponsored by the student group who she felt were biased against whites. Lemottee said that when she said so to Pingarron, he told her she would not be welcome in the group because she was white and couldn’t understand the group’s background and issues. Lemottee filed a grievance against the club with the school’s student association on Feb. 9.

“I was not welcome in their club and that’s reverse discrimination,” she said.

Pingarron, a second-year journalism major, contended that Lemottee expressed views that ran contrary to the group’s philosophy of helping the Latino community, and demanded explanations for the club’s activities.

Pingarron said he told Lemottee he would not welcome her membership after she expressed support for ideas such as increasing militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border.

But the grievance spurred a debate within the club over its membership policies. According to acting President Anita Sibayan, Pingarron resigned after the club refused to support his position that political views should be a test of membership and that whites should not be allowed to join.

“We are not a racist or separatist group,” Sibayan said.