LBCC’s American flag was flown at half-staff after Thursday, Sept. 11, from Friday to Sunday, and the college claimed the reason was an error by facilities. The Viking News is convinced the college doesn’t want their students to know the real reason.
The official statement, per Superintendent President Mike Munoz, was that the flag was lowered for Patriot Day, commonly known as 9/11 remembrance.
The Viking News spent nearly a week trying to get a clear answer from the school on if the flag was flown at half-staff to honor controversial conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot on Sept. 10, while speaking at a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University.
LBCC’s flag stayed at half-staff over the weekend, during the same time President Donald Trump issued an order for all federal and public buildings flags to be flown at half-staff from Sept. 10 to sunset on Sunday, in remembrance of Kirk.
Superintendent President Mike Munoz, Executive Director of PR Carl Kemp and Head of PR Stacey Toda failed to provide a direct response of why the flag was down over the weekend after five days of The Viking trying to get a clear statement.
Students deserve to know where LBCC stands on honoring a controversial and divisive political person with ideals that targeted over 50% of the school’s population, especially in the current political climate.
Kirk believed in the great replacement theory, a white nationalist conspiracy theory that the white population is intentionally being replaced by non-white immigrants.
LBCC claims to be a Hispanic serving institution, with “56% of its student body identifying as Latinx,” according to the official school website.
Kirk also targeted LGBTQ+ communities, stating “We need to have a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor. We need it immediately,” on the Charlie Kirk show on April 1, 2024. The Nuremberg Trials were used to convict and punish leaders of Nazi Germany for war crimes committed during World War II.
LBCC prides itself in supporting LGBTQ+ students with its designated program called “Pride Scholars,” which provides support for students in the LGBTQ+ community. The school also hosts “monthly events where Queerness is embraced & celebrated,” according to the LBCC’s website.
The website also states, “At LBCC, we are proud to celebrate and uplift our diverse LGBTQIA+ communities. Our mission is to ensure every student feels seen, supported, and empowered to thrive in both their academic and personal lives.”
Turning Point USA, Kirk’s organization, created a watchlist for liberal professors. The watchlist served as an online witch-hunt, which promoted harassment towards liberal professors, in regards to what professors did and did not feel safe discussing in class.
If executive leaders refuse to directly acknowledge if they are honoring a person who targeted over 50% of the school, students within the demographic that Kirk spoke negatively about will not truly believe that LBCC thinks these communities belong.
On Thursday, Sept. 11, The Viking spoke with Toda and directly asked if the flag was flown at half-staff for Charlie Kirk.
“To my understanding, it’s down for 9/11,” Toda said.
She pointed The Viking to Kemp, who later sent an email, on Thursday, with a statement on behalf of Mike Munoz, who was out sick, and the Long Beach City College District.
The statement read, “As we have done for the past 24 years, Long Beach City College flew the U.S. flag at half-staff today as part of Patriot Day, where we honor the nearly 3,000 lives lost on September 11, 2001, and the first responders who acted so heroically. We also acknowledge the horrific acts that occurred at Utah Valley University and Evergreen High School in Colorado, and decry all acts of gun violence.”
The flag remained at half-staff on Friday and a reporter spoke with Kemp, in-person, regarding the direct question if the flag was at half-staff due to the order issued by President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Kemp requested more time to formulate a response after he said, “I want to find the right words.”
Kemp mistyped the reporter’s phone number into his phone, and sent a message to an incorrect number. The message said, “Per Dr. Munoz, the statement that was emailed yesterday is the District’s official statement in response to your flag inquiry.”
At around 11 p.m. on Friday, The Viking spoke with Kemp over the phone to resolve the issue of not receiving a statement, but Kemp, once again, declined to state if the flag was being flown at half-staff in remembrance of Kirk, and deferred to the statement made on Thursday.
The flag remained at half-staff over the weekend and Superintendent President Mike Munoz responded, “To be honest, I don’t know. I was out sick,” on Monday, when he was asked about what went into the decision of having the flag lowered, during the Latinx Heritage Month Kick-Off event.
“I am aware that you were sent a statement that acknowledged all the tragedies that happened last week, so the flag was lowered for all those reasons,” Munoz said.
The Viking continued to ask the question of “was the flag lowered for Charlie Kirk?,” and provided Munoz with the demographics of the student population.
“I don’t want to slight one community over another because that feels not good,” Munoz said.
Munoz was also asked if he understood the rhetoric of Charlie Kirk and that Kirk targeted a large population of the school and responded, “Yes, of course,” which led the Viking to ask what message that sends to students, if students are under the impression that the flag was flown at half-staff to honor Kirk.
“I’m at an event (an on-campus Latinx Heritage Month event) for my students and that’s where my effort and energy need to be right now,” Munoz said.
Munoz seemed to use the event as a moment to escape the conversation around 12:30 p.m. on Monday, but made a point to express interest in continuing the conversation, if The Viking followed the protocol of a scheduled meeting through Toda.
Kemp called The Viking shortly after speaking to Munoz, and asked for the remaining questions through email, so they could “formulate a response.” The Viking refused email communication and Kemp scheduled a meeting for 4 p.m. on Monday.
In the scheduled meeting, The Viking asked Munoz to clarify what the sensitivities were when it came to addressing the flag being flown at half-staff and he said, “The flag lowering was in response to Patriot Day (9/11 remembrance). For the last 24 years, the college has lowered the flag, in honor of those who lost their lives during 9/11. As you know, more than one thing can be true at the same time, given the events that had occurred the day before, in Colorado and in Utah, I thought it was important to also acknowledge those situations, but for clarity, the flag was lowered for Patriot Day.”
Munoz, again, failed to directly answer what the sensitivities were when asked about the flag being lowered, while also refusing to name Kirk.
Munoz continued to be persistent on the flag being lowered for 9/11 and said that he believed the flag was supposed to be back at full-staff on Friday, but didn’t happen due to operational oversight.
“I do believe two things can be true at the same time. I did feel it was important to acknowledge the events that occurred, because I think wherever you’re sitting on the spectrum of things, I felt it was important for students and the campus community to just acknowledge that. It would feel a little tone deaf to me to not,” Munoz said.
Munoz should have stated who and what events were being honored specifically. The refusal to state names implied he was aware of the backlash or controversy it could have caused.
Munoz then reiterated that the LBCC’s final response was that the flag was lowered in response to Patriot Day.
The Viking brought up Kemp’s response made on Friday of, “I want to find the right words,” and asked what he was referring to, if he wasn’t addressing that the flag was lowered for Kirk.
“The president is the spokesman for this college and he was able to offer guidance. So as someone who works for the president, I wanted to make sure whatever was said was in alignment with what his directions were,” Kemp said.
Kemp’s explanation did not seem to line up with his original response made on Friday and implied he was attempting to cover up what he really meant, or he was leaving room for students to misunderstand what words he was finding on Friday, over the weekend.
The Viking then made a statement that Patriot Day felt overshadowed by the president’s order to lower the flags, and that many students attending were born after 2001.
Munoz then requested to go off-the-record for a “clarifying moment” and The Viking refused to do so, and Munoz ended the meeting.
Munoz was willing to respond off the record, but not for the college to know.
“It was for 9/11, in response to Patriot Day. At the same time, two things can be true at the same time, and we also acknowledge the events that took place in Utah and Colorado, and the flag being lowered over the weekend was an operational oversight,” Munoz said.
If the school truly wanted to acknowledge the events that occurred, it is disrespectful to not state their name or clearly state the event that happened.
Associate Vice President of Facilities Jeff Connell made a statement today that had very similar wording to Munoz’s official statement for the school.
“There was an operational error in communication to the people (responsible) for lowering the flag. There was no message,” Connell said.
Students deserve to know the real reason for why the flag was kept lowered, who the school chooses to honor and what decisions lead up to it to understand if they truly belong as the school claims.
If Patriot Day was a reason the flag was lowered, The Viking’s refusal to go off the record should not have been an issue if the school was not embarrassed by their actions, nor should it have taken five days to explain it was lowered for Patriot Day.
“We are adamant. This is important to us, and we lowered the flag to honor the people who lost their lives on Patriot Day. We’ve lowered the flag for the last 24 years, and that’s what was most important to us. That this is not new this year,” Connell said.
LBCC’s president and PR department need to be transparent in their responses. Their request to go off the record implied they were not being honest with what the reason was.
The school taking five days to respond to a yes or no question is very concerning, and feels like they were intentionally avoidant of the real reason, making it clear they did not stand by their decision, whatever the real reason was.
According to Transparent California’s 2023, Kemp’s salary was $184,588, and Munoz’s salary was $332,133.
As spokespeople for the school, who make such high salaries funded by taxpayers, they should be more than capable of answering a direct yes or no question, when it comes to their students’ understanding, regardless of the consequences.
If you were wondering the real reason why the flag was at half-staff, we wish we could tell you.
LBCC’s official statement, as of Monday, is that the flag was at half-staff on Thursday in response to Patriot Day, and remained down Friday to Sunday due to an operational oversight.
