Jeers for the Top Hatters Motorcycle Club which has cost
volunteers and the Garlic Festival a whopping sum in attorney
fees
The following organizations and individuals deserve either CHEERS or JEERS this week:
CHEERS: For Gilroy High School administrators who emphasized that school should come first – demonstrations later – when they and Gilroy Police Department officers prevented students from leaving school mid-day in a demonstration march. High school students should be able to march in support of their beliefs, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their academic classes, their ability to graduate successfully and their post-high school right to hold down a good job themselves.
JEERS: For the Top Hatters Motorcycle Club which sued the Gilroy Garlic Festival when they couldn’t wear their matching motorcycle jackets to the 2000 festival. The Garlic Festival Association was forced to spend $82,500 defending its right to deny entrance to those who violate a festival dress code banning gang colors. While the Festival’s policy was declared constitutional in the U.S. Court of Appeals recently, it’s very likely the four motorcycle club members will try to appeal the decision. Too bad, they’re intent on continuing to bill the volunteers of this community for such a silly purpose. What a waste. The Top Hatters ought to recognize the greater good of the festival, check their coats at the door and doff their caps to common sense. Give it up and get over it.
CHEERS: For Gavilan College’s CalWORKS program, which places eager college students with employers who are willing to offer work experience. Employers get much of the student’s salary paid by the state program. Students earn wages, valuable work experience – and the chance for a better life.
CHEERS: For the 57 years of service offered to the Gilroy Community by the downtown Dick Bruhn clothing store and all of its employees. Generations of Gilroyans have been outfitted for weddings, proms and everyday wardrobes, with the good humor and great service not always evident in clothing stores today.
JEERS: For the city’s choice of computer providers for the police department cars. The whole system, it appears, will have to be replaced. Whether the city will recover hundreds of thousands of dollars – taxpayer dollars – is not clear. But what clearly won’t be recovered is the amount of time and the energy put into the project that has been disappointing and frustrating officers. It’s been a fiasco from the get-go.
JEERS: For the lack of progress the Gilroy Unified School District has made resolving the bell schedule at Gilroy High School. Extra-curricular activities are costing students thousands of hours lost in core classes, and there’s been lots of talk but no action regarding a solution. Perhaps the school board should propose eliminating athletics.
