4 Held in Protest of Ban on Latino Club at College : Demonstration: They are among about 80 students rallying outside president’s office to have MEChA reinstated at Golden West.

Four student demonstrators were arrested Thursday after an angry four-hour protest over the removal of a Latino club at Golden West College.

Three of the demonstrators had chained themselves together at the wrists and seated themselves in front of a window in President Philip Westin’s office while a crowd of about 80 protested outside.

The fourth was arrested after he and about a dozen others linked arms and blocked a back entrance to Westin’s office, police said.

The rally outside the president’s office began around noon and had dwindled to about 15 people when more than 35 police officers in riot gear arrived with a dog about 4 p.m.

Police had received calls from frightened faculty members, and several offices had been shut down, Westin said. One class was canceled.

The police ordered the remaining demonstrators to disperse or be arrested, and they did.

The students were protesting Westin’s order in spring banning the MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan) club on campus unless new officers were elected and a new adviser chosen.

Westin said MEChA was suspended for “inappropriate actions,” including a scholarship fund-raiser on campus at which alcohol was consumed. The club also boycotted a recruitment drive aimed at attracting Latino students to the college.

The students claim that only one person at the fund-raiser was drinking, that he was not a member and that they reported him to campus police.

The club boycotted the college’s recruitment drive in April because it was not allowed to organize the event as it had for the previous 20 years, said Ana Carbajal, 28, one of those arrested.

At a press conference after the rally ended, Westin said he would not rescind the disciplinary action against the club and would consider possible disciplinary action against those arrested.

Two weeks ago, the students canceled a 24-hour vigil and rally because an Orange County Superior Court judge granted the college a restraining order prohibiting MEChA from demonstrating for a week.

The other arrestees are Lupe Lopez, 21, of Stanton, a former president of the club; Claudia Rochin, 20, of Westminster, and David Rojas, 22, of Fullerton.

Rojas was booked on suspicion of resisting arrest and prohibiting police activity, all misdemeanors. The three women were booked on suspicion of trespassing and disrupting campus business, also misdemeanors. Rochin is also charged with suspicion of felony assault on a police officer.

All were being held Thursday night at the Huntington Beach Jail pending $500 bail, except Rochin, whose bail was set at $10,000, according to Lt. Jeff Cope.

The women, who were dragged from the president’s office into a room out of public view, said police used excessive force. As she was being escorted off campus, Lopez said, officers “pulled my hair and kicked my friends.”

“The three females were asked to willingly leave the president’s office,” Cope said. “They refused. . . . We made a tactical decision to create a distraction to take them out of view of the crowd, dismantle their chains” and arrest them.

The women “basically were marketing themselves to entice the crowd,” Capt. Ed McErlain said. “By removing them, we removed part of the problem. . . . Not one of them was mishandled.”

One arresting officer suffered minor wounds to his right forearm when one of the women scratched him, police said.

The attorney for MEChA, Alfredo Amezcua, said: “I think the students are very angry and they have the right to be angry and express their opinions. Hopefully, the college will realize the magnitude of the problem. . . . We do have a very explosive situation here.”