Four Live Oak High School students urged the mostly Hispanic contingent of adults in attendance for an April 21 Cinco de Mayo community safety meeting to not show up in front of their school May 5 like two other groups have planned.
“There are lot of students who are afraid to go to school that day just because there already is a protest,” said LOHS senior Jocelyn Mendoza as she addressed the more than 30 concerned citizens on-hand inside the El Toro Room of the Community and Cultural Center. “It would be better if there were no protests at all.”
A second community meeting is scheduled for April 28 at 7 p.m. at the same location. The focus is to establish the best possible course of action for May 5 through discussion among community members, school officials, police and students.
“It’s not about one group versus another group,” said the meeting’s organizer Julian Mancias. “It’s what we can do collectively, and that’s why we’re here.”
Supporters of the We the People MH group, which includes several parents and relatives of current LOHS students, requested that Morgan Hill police and school officials seek a court-ordered injunction preventing any protests from happening across the street from the East Main Avenue campus.
“I don’t think (the protesters) have the right to abuse our kids,” said parent Ray Morales, who, like all in attendance, wants the rallies to be pushed away from the school. “My kids are staying home that day.”
The Gilroy-Morgan Hill Patriots have planned for a “peaceful” Cinco de Mayo U.S. Flag Rally in protest of the Ninth Circuit Court’s ruling siding with the school district for the morning of May 5, according to the local group’s president Georgine Scott-Codiga. She has also said her members are not organizing the second rally—posted on the patriotaction.net website—for later that afternoon, called the May 5 Flag Run. For that rally, Southern California Internet radio host Jimmy ‘Z’ Zulz is encouraging motorcyclists and motorists to ride through Morgan Hill displaying their U.S. flags.
A third public demonstration—tagged Unity, Respect and Peace Rally—is also being organized by local attorney Juan Lopez. He is concerned about the safety of all students, including his own who is a LOHS student, as they are arriving and departing school on May 5.
“The safety of students is our primary concern,” said Morgan Hill Police Chief David Swing, who was the field operations commander back in 2010. “I will tell you that unequivocally: We have a plan that’s in place.”
Swing said he would not disclose the details of that May 5 plan, which took into account discussion with school officials, other law enforcement and the Patriots. But he assured everyone that his officers are well-trained and “will be ready for whatever happens.”
“I want to encourage people instead of heading out there on the sidewalk on Cinco de Mayo to work with the school district, find a way to get behind the walls, so to speak, and to work with the youth that are there and teach culture and teach history and teach the significance of this day,” Swing said.
Morgan Hill Unified Superintendent Steve Betando cited the media for reporting on the events that transpired in 2010 and for informing residents of what the Patriots and other groups have planned for the 2014 Cinco de Mayo holiday.
“There certainly wouldn’t have been as much anxiety, angst and problems in 2010 if the media wasn’t involved. We all know that,” Betando said. “In many ways by having the counter protest you are feeding the media’s hunger for controversy and that is exactly why the Morgan Hill Times put it on the front page of the paper above the fold because they’re looking for readers.”
LOHS senior Hannah Doting said the protests are “bringing unnecessary attention to their school,” which was the focus of a national media blitz back in 2010 after four former students were asked by school officials to remove or turn inside-out their American patriotic T-shirts on the Cinco de Mayo holiday. They refused and were sent home.
“(They were) events that happened in a very short span of time and, clearly I’ve said it before, things could have been done differently, but they weren’t,” said Betando, who was not with the district at the time.
The current crop of students—none of whom attended LOHS in 2010—have their own plans for May 5, encouraging classmates to wear the school colors of green and gold for May 5. They plan to decorate the campus in school colors as well, and plan to celebrate the Cinco de Mayo holiday at school.
“I just feel like this is bringing unwanted attention that we as students at Live Oak didn’t ask for,” said LOHS senior Emily Conlin. “Bringing on this protest or the counter protest, I don’t think it reflects what Live Oak is and what Morgan Hill is.”
The “We the People MH” supporters, along with others in attendance such as a member of the League of United Latin American Citizens and a veteran gang counselor, still had their concerns and questioned whether Betando had asked the same of the Patriots as they were of them. The superintendent said he did and that they refused.
As for the request of enforcing an injunction, Swing said: “I don’t believe an injunction would apply because this gets back to the First Amendment … I think, if the city would try to seek an injunction, we would have a much larger battle on our hands.”
Two school board members, Rick Badillo and Claudia Rossi, as well as Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Fawn Myers, were on hand for the April 21 meeting. Santa Clara Valley Water District Executive Director Dennis Kennedy, a Morgan Hill resident, was present as well.
