Two days after a slate of events on Cinco de Mayo outside Live Oak High School carried a cloud of potential disruption but ended without incident, there was a return to normalcy for the school’s approximately 1,100 students and faculty.
Gone are the chain-link fence with a green curtain that stretched the East Main Avenue perimeter, traffic cones diverting parents into the main school parking lot, the heavy Morgan Hill Police presence, television news vans, different factions of protesters and curious bystanders who watched the events of May 5 unravel.
After “significant” absences from LOHS due to the planned commotion (final May 5 attendance numbers were not available at press time) and about $25,000 in public safety measures by the Morgan Hill Police Department in response to the day’s scheduled activities, peace prevailed, and the students inched closer to their wish to put the 2010 T-shirt incident at the center of the protests behind them.
Morgan Hill Unified School District Trustee Claudia Rossi who, along with fellow school board member Ron Woolf, spent the day inside LOHS said attendance was “significantly affected” due to the outside protests.
“Inside of Live Oak, there was a very positive energy between the students,” Rossi said. “I saw students of different nationalities come together in celebration, and these were the highlights of all these weeks of tension and anticipation.”
Outside, East Main Avenue was a hive of activity, with two organized demonstrations in support of freedom of speech attracting bystanders and smaller-scale responses, such as two shirtless young men comically promoting the fictional “Donut Party” and an occasional drive-by of a Mexican flag waving from passing vehicles.
“Peacefully, like we promised,” said Gilroy-Morgan Hill Patriots President Georgine Scott-Codiga of her group’s silent protest that included about 50 members holding 10-foot high poles with large American flags attached as they lined both sides of East Main Avenue in front of LOHS. “We feel very strongly that our U.S. flag should never be banned.”
The Patriots, along with the 2 Million Bikers to D.C. motorcycle club that provided a second public demonstration later the same afternoon, were protesting a Ninth Circuit Court’s ruling affirming that school officials did not violate four former students’ First Amendment rights by asking them to remove their American patriotic-themed T-shirts on May 5, 2010.
“We believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and as veterans we have supported the freedoms of all Americans,” said 2 Million Bikers to D.C. Assistant State Coordinator Bill Roller of Alameda, who led a convoy of about 30 bikers from around the Bay Area through downtown Morgan Hill to the front of LOHS where they recited the Pledge of Allegiance and continued to display American flags and patriotic garb.
Students show solidarity
Current LOHS students preemptively responded to the scheduled protests by hanging a banner on the temporary perimeter fence with their handprints in paint that read: “United at the Roots. We are all different branches of the same tree.” Inside the fence on campus, those LOHS students who attended school May 5 tried to have as normal a day as possible.
“Live Oak is a great place to be, full of amazing individuals who care about each other, our school and the community. I think everyone can agree that every day’s a great day to be an Acorn,” said LOHS senior Emily Conlan via email.
Several days before May 5, students also produced a video delivering the message that the campus is not divided as depicted by some grownups and the media, and they simply want to put the 2010 incident behind them.
Mayor Steve Tate said it was the students who shined the brightest this Cinco de Mayo, as they publicly presented a unified message of solidarity and a desire to move on from the 2010 incident.
“All the credit goes to the Live Oak students,” Tate said. “The kids just expressed their own opinions, their own unity and had a wonderful celebration.”
‘Peace, unity, respect’ rally
At a Monday night Cinco de Mayo celebration in Community Park—organized by the “We the People of Morgan Hill” group of mostly Hispanic parents of LOHS students—student speakers noted they were “very happy that everything went peacefully.”
During the Peace, Unity and Respect Rally—a celebration of Mexican culture and cultural awareness—attendees and public officials who spoke to the crowd of about 100 noted that despite the presence of organized non-locals, Morgan Hill still had a chance to celebrate its ethnic pride without any major disturbance.
“I wanted to come out here today because I saw outside influences portraying Morgan Hill in a negative light,” LOHS parent Diane Hernandez-Bettancourt said at the evening celebration, which also featured traditional Mexican dancing and music performances. “This rally shows exactly what I knew Morgan Hill was about—which is a deep respect for our culture and, most importantly, that those Patriots were the most unpatriotic group.”
Her daughter, McKenna Bettancourt, a student at Jackson Academy of Math & Music, held a sign that said “Proud to be Mexican-American.” She said going to the rally was a way to “support our culture and others in our culture.”
Eric Acedo, 23, a 2008 LOHS alumnus, convinced his friend Alan Reyes to join him at the peace rally to show their support for uniting the community.
“I think there’s a rise in a culture that’s very divisive in Morgan Hill as seen by the two protests in front of Live Oak today,” Acedo said. “I wanted to come out and support unity of all cultures and ethnicities.”
MHUSD Superintendent Steve Betando said there were no surprises on campus or just outside where the demonstration occurred.
There were no reports of violence, according to MHPD Captain Shane Palsgrove, who was onsite at LOHS and answered questions from media.
Heightened public safety efforts—including officer overtime and planning for “multiple contingencies”—came at a cost of approximately $25,000, Morgan Hill Police Chief David Swing said.
The mayor noted that he doesn’t consider that cost a burden, considering no incidents occurred.
“The job of our police department is to keep the community safe, and we have to do what it costs to do that,” Tate said.
Times’ staff members Michael Moore and Cheeto Barrera contributed to this report.
