Have you ever wanted to say something about the school, talk about some girl or guy or complain about a teacher and tell your peers about it?
Now you can.
The RCC Student Confessions page on Facebook is where students from the three RCCD campuses are posting comments. Comments are posted by current and past RCC students who write about the good ol’ days and their past exploits on campus, and where current students discuss their issues with the school or anything they have seen that may annoy them.
It is unknown who created the page, however, the administrator has posted some information about himself and how to post on the very first confession/post.
“As an RCC lifer, I made this page for all RCC students past and present to come together and to share anything and everything that is on your mind whether it’s school, work, relationships, life, etc.,” posted the administrator. “All confessions are 100% anonymous. You can post them at the link http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P8N5H6G or you can email at rccstudentconfessions@hotmail.com.”
The administrator is very active on the page, updating it and adding more confessions every day. Some days there’s multiple updates. On nearly every post the administrator posts his thoughts on the confessions posted or will like some of the responses that were made on a post.
Some of the confessions on the page aren’t safe for work. Students delve into some mature subjects that aren’t office and school friendly
Complaints about teachers on campus are a popular subject on the page. Students write about teachers at all three campuses and their strange interactions with them. Some students vent about certain teachers and offer recommendations to fellow students.
Many of the confessions are exploits in class.
“One semester, I sat next to a deaf foreign exchange student who was also a basketball player @ RCC in Photoshop class, and I stole the Photoshop exercise cd from them, so I can rip the exercise files off the cd since I had lost mine (I was too scared to ask anyone else in the class for it…),” posted one student. “The next day, I tried to coyly place it back at their work station in the cd drive, so when they would open it that person would see it there. I think the guy and his interpreters caught on, and I still felt bad about it when I saw the person and the interpreters on campus… Sorry about that…”
Other confessions go on about their interactions with people out of class.
“I hate the people that normally hang out in the Corral,” wrote one Norco College student. “They are so loud and they take up most of the space. It’s a place for studying, not a place for you to yell with your friends.”
One student asked the online community how to approach a girl.
“Would a girl find it creepy if I just sat next to her in the library and started talking to her?” wrote one student. “I have always thought about this but I figure they would not want to be bothered since they are studying.”
To check out the page, visit Facebook.com/Rcc-student-confessions.

In the beginning of the year no one would have expected the Lakers to be fighting for a playoff spot. With the acquisitions of Dwight Howard and Steve Nash to play along with perennial All-Stars Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, not many thought this team would struggle. But that’s exactly what’s happening.
The season started out in a funk when Howard wasn’t able to start in training camp because of back surgery earlier last season. Preseason started and Dwight wasn’t in the lineup and the Lakers went 0-8 in the preseason and some of the fans started to worry. No team had ever won an NBA championship going winless in the preseason and the Lakers every season are championship or bust.
When the season started Oct. 30 Howard started at center, though not at 100 percent. The season started like it did last season with an opening day loss at home. The next day the second game in Portland, Nash went down with a fracture in his leg and went out for nearly two months. To add insult to injury, the Lakers were embarrassed on the road.
The Lakers ended up losing their first three games and panic was starting to set in L.A. What was happening to the Lakers? The Lakers won their first game of season in the fourth game. But that wasn’t even the most significant story to come out of the win. The team fired Mike Brown, their coach at the time.
Mitch Kupchak, the Lakers general manager commented on the firing. “The bottom line is that the team is not winning at the pace that we expected this team to win and we didn’t see improvement.” Kupchak said at the Lakers press conference in early November.” We wish Mike well and we’re sorry it ended this way. So, we’ve decided to move in another direction and make a change.”
The Lakers were looking for a new coach and the fans in the stands voiced their opinions chanting, “We want Phil,” referring to former Lakers head coach Phil Jackson. The race went down between him and now current head coach Mike D’antoni. Mike was given the job Nov. 11, the day the Lakers were set to meet with Jackson.
The team called Jackson on midnight on Sunday to tell him they were going with D’antoni. This left a bad taste in the mouths of not only Jackson but also the Laker fans around the world. Jackson has led his teams to 11 championships and has dealt with talented rosters before. On top of all that Jackson was interested in taking the job.
But the decision was made to not go with Jackson and the team has suffered partly because of it.
After D’antoni was hired the Lakers didn’t get off to a fast start. Once D’antoni finally took the bench in the 11th game of the season the Lakers were 5-5 and playing good basketball. They lost their first game with him coaching and have been under .500 since his hire.
Coaching isn’t the only problem the Lakers have had this season. The team has not played like a team most of the time. There may be a bunch of great players on the team but when a team doesn’t want to play as one, the team won’t succeed. Their defense hasn’t been very good and a lot of the time the other team out hustles the Lakers, showing everyone they are not desperate to win, which at this very moment they are.
Injuries haven’t helped either along with injuries to Nash; Howard also tore a muscle in his shoulder and has been playing with it all year. Jordan Hill one of the best players coming off the bench at time of his season ending hip injury hurt the Laker’s depth. Steve Blake the backup point guard played only a few games before he hurt his knee and was out for two months. Gasol has been hurt a lot this year as well dealing with knee and foot problems. His latest ailment started in early February and has been out since.
The team has had only 18 games with their opening day starting five together. Injuries are definitely partly to blame, but a team this talented shouldn’t be competing for a playoff spot, they should be competing for the best record in the league. Coaching and players need to work together to get their priorities on track and get into the playoffs and make a run.
Laker fans know it’s always going to be championship or bust.

Team handball is one of the most popular sports in Europe with matches putting as many as 37,000 people in the stands. So why doesn’t anyone know about the sport in the USA?
“One reason might be that team handball was invented in Europe,” says Stine Godsk, 21, a Danish exchange student at Kennesaw State University. “I mean, back there with the different countries being so close, it is just easier to have big tournaments like Champions League and EHF Cup. It makes team handball more of a national sport and that draws people in. In Denmark the whole nation is gathered around the TV when the National Team is playing, I am not sure that Americans have a sport that gathers everyone like that.”
Team handball has two teams of seven players, six field players and a goalie. The main idea is to pass the ball between the field players and throw it into the other team’s goal. A normal match is two periods of 30 minutes with a halftime break in between. Whichever team scores the most goals wins.
The game is fast and very physical as the two teams try to stop each other from scoring in each other’s goals. As long as the defender stays in front of the offender, rugby-like tackles are allowed. And unlike basketball, where a player is only allowed five fouls, in team handball you can make as many as you like. In fact, the more fouls the better the defense is considered. Usually each team scores between 20 and 35 goals.
The defense is defending the goal area, a half circle-like area around each goal where only the goalie is allowed. Field players can jump into the goal area but if they touch the ground while still holding onto the ball, the ball will be turned over to the opposite team.
A match is led by two referees who are equal in making the calls. If a ref finds a tackle in the defense too hard they can punish the player with a two-minute suspension. During those two minutes the player’s team will be one less player on the field. A suspension like that will usually be accompanied by a penalty shot for the other team. That is a shot where there is no defense, just the shooter and the goalie, and usually that will result in a goal.
A ref can also give a two-minute suspension if a player or a coach complains about a ruling.
Team handball is a great sport to both play and watch. The players run a lot back and forward on the field, and you need physical strength both to be on the defense and offense, which makes it a great workout. Matches are fun to watch because they are fast paced, physical and a lot of goals are scored.
Right now there are 35 established team handball clubs in the USA. Two of these are in Southern California, one is at Camp Pendleton and the other is LA Team Handball Club in Huntington Beach. The only other team is in San Francisco. Not a big show, but it’s a start.
For more information about this sport, visit www.usateamhandball.org or www.lathc.org (www.lawthc.org for the women’s team).

Picture a world in which your dreams never come true; that no matter how hard you try, how much you want it, you’ll never reach your goal.
This became the harsh reality for wrestlers around the world when the International Olympic Committee removed wrestling from the 2020 summer games.
Early in February, the IOC decided to remove the sport, both freestyle and Greco-Roman, in an attempt to draw in a younger demographic, a sport that didn’t draw as big of numbers as say aquatics or track and field.
I, however, can’t see how they could remove one of the oldest sports in history. Aside from running, jumping and throwing, people have been wrestling with one another even before the Olympic Games started in 776 BC.
For the younger generations of wrestlers, what do they have to look forward to now? They no longer have that top-of-the-mountain to reach, while the people wrestling in college right now just had the carpet pulled from under them.
The decision by the IOC affects more people than they might think. The removal of the sport could send a rippling effect that trickles down to kids just starting in the sport. Schools and gyms may not show as much of an interest in funding wrestling programs, which could eventually kill the sport. Scholarships for the sport may also not receive as much money in the budget to help students.
With the history of wrestling, and how long it’s been part of the Olympics, the sport should have gained some type of tenure. There are many other sports that are more fitting for removal such as table tennis, synchronized swimming and equestrian. Sure, these sports take a certain amount of skill and talent, but none seem to be above wrestling.
Table tennis, for example, requires a ball, paddle and a table with a net; it is basically a miniature form of tennis, which is already in the Olympics.
If the IOC is looking to draw in a bigger audience than they should make wrestlers compete how they did thousands of years ago.
When you hear wrestling, one should think Olympics, not the WWE, where wrestling involves men in their underwear inside a ring hitting one another with a steel chair. People with the natural-born talent and skill to be a wrestler should have the place to put it to the test against someone with the same skills.
Unless they decide to go into mixed material arts like the UFC, wrestlers may lose a place to compete. I’d rather see basketball, soccer, hockey and boxing out of the Olympics before wrestling because they at least have someone to go other than the Olympics. Basketball has the NBA, hockey has the NHL, and boxing has Don King.
Wrestling takes true skill with strength, agility and endurance, it isn’t something anyone can pick up and master with ease. People spend years, if not their life, in an attempt to one day compete in the Olympics. No matter what it takes, I hope the IOC reconsiders their decision and reinstates wrestling back to where it belongs.

The Cinderella Story-esque, Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens face a monumental task this offseason: replacing one of the most celebrated linebackers in NFL history.
Ray Lewis announced at the beginning of the playoffs that this would be his “last ride.” This sparked an emotional rollercoaster leading all the way to a Super Bowl victory, the second of Lewis’ career. Now the Ravens have to find a way to replace the heart and soul of their defense.
They have some examples from the past to follow in this quest. They can pursue the Niners’ example of staying in house with the replacement. In the ‘90s Joe Montana was heading to the end of his career, so they turned to Steve Young who turned into a Hall-of-Famer and led them to a Super Bowl victory in 1994. This will be hard with the inexperienced back up of Lewis.
Josh Bynes played in place of Lewis this past season while Lewis recovered from a torn tricep. In 2012 Bynes had 19 total tackles and 15 assisted tackles with no interceptions or sacks. However, with Lewis amassing 44 total tackles and 13 assisted tackles with one sack and no interceptions in four less games Bynes doesn’t quite match up. If they stay with Bynes then he will have to watch a lot of film and work extra hard in minicamp to be able to read his keys and make the same impact as Lewis.
They can also follow in the footsteps of the Vikings and Packers in drafting a replacement for the future. The Vikings drafted Randy Moss, who now holds the record for receiving touchdowns in a season, to replace Hall-of-Famer Chris Carter; and the Packers drafted Aaron Rodgers, who eventually led them to a Super Bowl championship, and ultimately replaced Brett Favre.
A good prospect for the Ravens to draft to replace Lewis would be Kevin Reddick. He has a troubled past with the NCAA but he is a great athlete. In the February NFL Scouting Combine he ran a 4.72 40-yard dash while bench pressing 225 pounds 23 times. He is around the same size as Lewis and has great pass rush moves to compliment his hawk-like vision for diagnosing plays.
Another Prospect is Jon Bostic, who is a little bigger than Reddick but is faster with a 4.61 40-yard dash. He got one less rep on the bench press but is still powerful. He played the same position as Lewis for Florida last year, which will simplify his transition to the NFL. He utilizes great power and leverage in his hits, while also using his hands well to swipe away opposing blockers en route to the ball.
While those options are great the Ravens can also choose the road less traveled and sign an experienced free agent. Bart Scott is an unrestricted free agent and will be available. He was Lewis’ teammate on the Ravens from 2002-2008 and is just as good an emotional leader as Lewis. He had 36 total tackles and 24 assisted tackles with two and a half sacks and one interception in 2012.
Then there is Larry Foote who is coming from Pittsburgh with experience in a three-man front defense. He is very experienced and is still a respectable contributor. He could be a worthy veteran and mentor presence in the locker room. In 2012 he had 75 total tackles and 38 assisted tackles with four sacks and no interceptions.
While all of these are great options I believe they should keep Bynes and try to draft Kevin Reddick. They can use Bynes in case Reddick needs time to adapt. Reddick I believe will develop into a great presence in the NFL. I watched him play at North Carolina and he showed great reading skills in knowing whether to drop back or to ferociously attack the line on a run. He also showed decent hip swivel to be able to hold up to Lewis’ example in pass coverage. He also already has great experience having been a four-year starter at North Carolina.
Now that all of the options are in the open the Ravens can pursue whatever trail they want. They must be grateful to only have to replace one future Hall-of-Famer with Ed Reed choosing to stay for at least one more year. It will be an interesting story to follow to see what road they take to start the Post Ray Era of the franchise.
This fall, for the first time in the team’s history, the Ravens will walk out of the tunnel without number 52 and his famous dance. Who will be the next legend?

Growing up in the inner city I was surrounded by people who dreamed of moving to the suburbs for a better life. I was one of them wanting to get away from all the violence.
Living in Long Beach I experienced gang violence, losing several childhood friends to gunshots. That stood out to my sister and she realized that if our family was to make something of ourselves we had to get out.
I recently moved from Long Beach to Eastvale. The transition has been what I expected—freedom and a chance to gain a fresh start. I’m relieved from worrying about whether I was going to survive.
Eastvale has been really a peaceful city and the clean environment makes life a bit easier. Homes and shopping centers are spaced out so there’s not much disarray going on as there is in Long Beach. It’s a lot less busy and there’s more people focused on striving for better jobs and lives.
Recently when I went back to visit Long Beach I noticed nothing has changed. Everyone seems to be still wanting to move out of the city but aren’t striving to make any moves to do so.
Eastvale residents will never experience what the inner city life is about, luckily. I see guys around acting tough and posing as they’re not to be messed with. From my experience, if these dudes were to pose as they do in Long Beach they wouldn’t make it around the block without getting approached.
Within weeks of staying in Eastvale I realized that many people don’t have the same street smarts. Everyone is the same. Luckily Eastvale residents don’t need street smarts to help them survive.
Not every inner city kid lives out their dreams of getting a chance to move out to the suburbs to experience the different environment and receive the opportunity to start off new. Luckily for me I’ve made it out and I envision accomplishing everything I want to achieve in life.

To me, the cost of an education in the United States is ridiculous. I find it surprising that such a big percentage of the people actually get an education with those enormous expences.
I come from a totally different culture when it comes to education. I am from Denmark in Europe and we pay for education through taxes.
That means “free” tuition from when you start kindergarten until you’re done with school, that being the compulsory nine years of education, a bachelor degree or a PhD. It is completely up to you and your work effort.
Everyone pays a lot of taxes in Denmark. I believe the usual rate is about 40 percent, which I agree is a lot, but it pays for your education, health care and other stuff. The welfare system funded by the taxes basically takes care of you when you can’t do it yourself.
So, is the Danish way better than the American? I think it is.
The Danish way provides you with already-paid-for tuition. You have to pay your taxes whether or not you are going to get educated. So you might as well, right?
The Danish way also means that even though you don’t have a small fortune, which actually seems to be the price here in the United States, you have the opportunity to get an education and make a life for yourself. You can basically become a doctor or a professor in who-knows-what without burying yourself in student loans that you will still be paying off when you reach retirement age.
What is the big fuss about getting an education anyway? Why do we need it?
Well, for one, education is the road to well-paid jobs. Right now with the economic crisis going on and the unemployment numbers being so high, education might be the road to any job.
If an employer is faced with two persons asking for the same job, is he going to pick the one with an education or the one without?
Not much of a choice now, is it?
Even though the education isn’t relevant for this job, it shows something about your character. You pulled it together and got an education—you got the job done. That is a quality any employer would appreciate.
Sure, I get that not everyone is going to take advantage and get a higher education but the taxes also cover culinary school, tuition to become a mechanic, a carpenter, a pastry chef, a butcher or a basket weaver, if that’s where your passion lies.
Even if you’re not going to get an education at all, you won’t have to worry about having as many kids as you want and being able to send all of them to college. You already paid for it.
Furthermore, the taxes provide something called the state’s education support. It is a monthly payment based on you and your family’s financial status that you get from the state when you are in school. They pay you, not much but some, to focus on your education. That way you won’t have to work three jobs on the side to pay your way through college. Most students still have to work to pay for books and housing, but the state chips in.
What I am basically getting at is that paying taxes is the biggest pain ever when you have to do it. I absolutely hate paying 40 percent of my paycheck in taxes but coming here I have actually realized that it is worth it.
I would rather pay my taxes and not have to worry about the expense of my education. I don’t say that lightly; I don’t believe that you should pay all your money in taxes so that some people can free ride on the system throughout their lives. Hard work should be rewarded but at the same time everyone should have the opportunity to get an education

Is texting a few words while driving worth losing your life?
This is a question I ask myself daily. Whether I’m driving to school or walking on the street, I see it everywhere. Driving is a privilege not a right, and many Americans today are abusing this right by selfishly sending texts, causing accidents and sometimes killing others.
Did you know that if you kill someone when texting you will be arrested and charged with manslaughter? Just like drunk driving, the proof is right there for the cops to uncover. All they have to do is check your phone and see the time the text was sent and correlate that to the time of the accident. Case closed.
Many think they will never get caught or that texting doesn’t hurt anybody. But what happens when it’s too late and you take someone’s life and now you have to pay for it?
Or what happens if the person whose life was taken was a family member, or even your own?
Most people don’t even consider the consequences. I’ve even heard people say, “At least I’m not drinking and driving.”
Recent studies reveal that texting and driving is up to five times more deadly than drinking and driving. One study conducted by The New York Times found that “drivers distracted by texting have much slower reaction times than people who are under the influence. Because the five seconds you may take to send the text are five seconds your eyes are not on the road.”
I am personally bitter about this topic. I recently had a friend come close to death after being hit by a distracted driver. My own car got totaled due to a texting driver. One of my fellow students here on campus was almost hit by a texting driver while walking on the sidewalk.
Ways I avoid texting and driving is having friends in the car text for me, giving the person a short hands-free call, pulling over on the side of the road, waiting until you get to your destination, or just turning off the phone completely to eliminate the temptation.
It seems as though the more people who are being affected by texting and driving, the more it occurs. Maybe the punishments aren’t firm enough, or people simply don’t value the life of others. This outrages me.
I don’t understand how people can see and hear about the affects of texting while driving yet they still text themselves. It’s becoming a norm in society, simply because social media is taking over. I’m starting to believe texting and driving will increase unless something more drastic is done about it.
So before you pick up your phone, picture yourself behind bars, in a grave and living the rest of your life knowing that you inflicted pain on another person.
This is not a situation to “LOL” about.

Dog owners have spoken.
More than 4.5 million people are bitten every year from dogs. This includes all kinds of pets, those on leashes, stray mutts and dogs in their yard.
However, most people get bitten due to a canine that is not on a leash. 


Recently I got a call from a friend who was in trouble. I had to rush to a nearby animal hospital because her dog had been attacked. When I walked into the waiting room, I saw that my friend’s shirt was completely covered in blood. 


She told me how the horrific accident went down. She was walking on the sidewalk with her Chihuahua mix, Buddy, who was on a leash. My friend turned the corner and out of nowhere a Pit Bull had rushed out of its yard and across the street, clamping its jaws down onto Buddy’s side. The Pit then dragged him across the street, leaving horrible wounds in its wake. My friend did all she could to get the dog off of her pet.


When the owner came out and saw what was happening, he didn’t even attempt to get his dog off of Buddy. All he did was grab a rake and sort of jabbed his dog in the side. Owners need to start taking more responsibility for their off leash pets. It’s even a California rule that many fail to follow.


I’ve even had an experience with this myself. I was walking my friend’s dogs on the sidewalk and someone’s dog just walks out of its yard and begins to attack and clamp on to my dog’s neck. The owner had to come out and rip his animal away from mine.


It’s the fact that many people don’t care how well your dog is trained, it’s all about how their dog is. If yours was off leash and walked over to some stranger’s pet, what if their dog attacked yours? It’s on a leash for a reason. 


You also cannot guarantee if these dogs have had any of their shots, which would result into a human or even another animal to be rushed to the hospital for tetanus shot. I wouldn’t want my dog going after a little kid, either.


Many owners decide to let their dog out in their front lawn without a leash or even a tie to keep the animal in check. This often ends with the dog running across the street when seeing either a human or another animal.


People are quite oblivious to this leash law and only think about how they think they can control their animals. Even if it is in your own front yard, people should keep their animals on a leash or in a fenced area. 


People need to start keeping their dogs on leashes not just for their safety, but also for their animals and the animals of others.


Even when walking your dog, I would advise keeping a stick or even a small blade, (legal of course!) and some pepper spray in your pocket. It could save your life and even your animal’s if you are ever attacked.


My friend ended up getting the expensive bill for her dog’s injuries. The bill came up to around four thousand dollars. Buddy had to have his front left leg removed. He is an old dog, and all my friend wanted was for him to live the rest of his life peacefully, but now he must get used to only having three legs. I had to keep reassuring her and soon enough, Buddy was back on his feet and is doing rather well. However, my friend still experiences nightmares from this event.


It does not matter if your dog is a Labrador Retriever or even a teacup Poodle. If something like that happens you could be out of money, out of a dog, and in court for not having your dog on a leash.