A group of about 30 motorcycles—many driven by military veterans and affixed with waving American flags—made their way in an organized afternoon procession from Tennant Avenue to Live Oak High School this Cinco de Mayo.
The procession—the second demonstration at the high school on Cinco de Mayo—was organized by the group 2 Million Bikers to DC in response to a recent court decision that ruled against four former LOHS students who claimed school administrators abridged their freedom of speech on the campus exactly four years ago.
“This is a peaceful demonstration,” 2 Million Bikers to DC Assistant State Coordinator Bill Roller, an Alameda resident, told the bikers in a dirt parking area on the side of Condit Road just before beginning the afternoon procession through Morgan Hill.
The motorcycle group, which included members of other area groups such as the Patriot Guard, made its way slowly from Condit Road and Tennant Avenue, west to Monterey Road through downtown Morgan Hill and to LOHS via East Main Avenue. According to police and bystanders, the afternoon did not create traffic disruption or impact public welfare.
“We are here for patriotic reasons. We believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and as veterans we have supported the freedoms of all Americans,” said Roller, adding that the group is “not taking sides” in the original May 5, 2010 controversy and ensuing legal battle. “What we do have a problem with is when you suppress one side to support the other.”
Motorcycles arrived just before 2 p.m. to a throng of protesters remaining from the morning Gilroy Morgan Hill Patriots’ demonstration, a horde of media members, police and school officials situated outside the school and across the street to manage crowds and traffic.
After they parked on the side of East Main Avenue, the motorcycle riders gathered where they could see the American flag atop the school’s flag pole—sticking out above the top of a temporary chain-link fence with a green curtain erected around the campus—and recited the “Pledge of Allegiance.”
“It was so impressive, patriotic, humbling and appreciated,” said Patriots supporter Donna Rosemont of watching the motorcycle group arrive at Live Oak. “These are retired veterans who served our country to protect our right to present the flags here today.”
She said the flags used in the morning protest were the same kind as those used to adorn military coffins and other military and veteran events.
“It was a very precious presentation,” she said.
The motorcycle group’s State Coordinator, Allan LaRue, also told the assembled crowd that if they planned on not being peaceful Monday, they were not welcome to participate in the rally.
And as of 3 p.m. as the school day came to a close at LOHS, the bikers, early morning protesters, passersby and bystanders remained peaceful, according to police. No incidents or arrests related to the day’s events—which included a silent protest by the Gilroy-Morgan Hill Patriots outside the school on East Main Avenue as students were arriving—were reported, police said.
The demonstrations, as well as extra security measures in and around LOHS Monday, occurred four years to the day after four former LOHS students were sent home because they declined to turn their American flag themed T-shirts inside out on May 5, 2010.
The school’s staff asked the students to turn the garments inside-out due to heightening tensions on campus throughout the day, and the incident sparked a national debate about free speech that continues. Parents of the students subsequently sued Morgan Hill Unified School District, and Monday’s peaceful protest was motivated by a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in March that sided with MHUSD.
LaRue said the biker group vowed to prove the organizer of yet another rally scheduled for Monday evening wrong. An organizer of the evening “Unity, Respect and Peace” protest—attorney Juan Lopez—said leading up to Cinco de Mayo that he was concerned the demonstrations by the Patriots and bikers might result in an unsafe environment outside the school.
“We’re not an outlaw biker group,” LaRue said.
Outside LOHS, students leaving class for the day declined to speak to the media, as did those arriving on foot in the morning. But some took to social media throughout the day to comment on Cinco de Mayo festivities occurring on campus, or to air their support for the student body that went out of its way to display school unity in the days leading up to the planned demonstrations.
“So happy that we can come together and enjoy a simple day like today. (I’m) proud to be an Acorn,” Jocelyn Mendoza, a senior at Live Oak, said via Twitter.
The final rally scheduled for Cinco de Mayo, organized by Lopez on the Facebook page titled “wethepeople MH,” will take place at 5 p.m. at the Morgan Hill Community Park.
To read more on the Gilroy Morgan Hill Patriots’ morning demonstration outside LOHS and extra public safety measures for Cinco de Mayo, read this story.
