Six years, a trial, and a firing. But no end to a professor’s sexual harassment fight
Inside a Los Angeles professor’s long sexual harassment fight – Los Angeles Times
Sabrena Turner-Odom had settled comfortably into the rhythms of campus life at Los
Angeles Southwest College. The English professor and tutoring director found it rewarding to guide students who reminded her of friends from her younger years — some who didn’t see college as a fit, others who were lost to street violence.
“What I tell my students is: Education is the fight of your life, because it will change your life,” she said.
But the sense of fulfillment she built over two decades splintered in February 2017, when Turner-Odom started reporting to Howard Irvin, the college’s then-vice president of student services and a former Los Angeles Police Department sergeant. During their frequent meetings at a circular glass table in Irvin’s office, he would abruptly shift the conversation from work to her appearance, she testified in a civil court case she brought against Southwest College and Irvin.