Hispanic students march north on Monterey Road toward city hall

More than 200 Hispanic teens skipped school Thursday and marched
through Morgan Hill yelling

We want respect!

and

Si se puedes!

At least six Morgan Hill police cars and several sheriff’s
vehicles caravanned alongside the line of teens wearing red, white
and green and carrying Mexican flags.
More than 200 Hispanic teens skipped school Thursday and marched through Morgan Hill yelling “We want respect!” and “Si se puedes!” At least six Morgan Hill police cars and several sheriff’s vehicles caravanned alongside the line of teens wearing red, white and green and carrying Mexican flags.

The crowd – mostly high school students – left school Thursday morning after the story of four students who were sent home because they wore American flag T-shirts went viral on TV and online.

The students say they want people to know they’re proud of their heritage and those who wore red, white and blue on Cinco de Mayo weren’t showing them any respect.

“We did this to support the Latino/Hispanic community,” said Francine Roa, who graduated from Live Oak High School in 2005. She brought her 2-year-old son Elias Martinez on the march.

During the march, several car donned American flags on the bed of trucks or from windows and repeatedly drove past the crowd.

The teens responded by yelling “Give us respect!” but some screamed obscenities. At least three people driving yelled derogatory slurs at the largely Hispanic group.

After school Thursday, dozens of police officers and seven TV news vans lined Main Street outside Live Oak.

Stephen Sandhu, a junior, said the media had “totally blown this out of proportion.”

He said going to school Thursday was pointless because teachers and students were overwhelmed with the media attention and bogged down in the drama that festered Wednesday.

Many of the students were from Live Oak, who left school about 11 a.m. Thursday and decided to march to the school district headquarters just north of Tennant Road. When they arrived, they were told to leave the property.

The group marched through downtown and went west on Main Street to Morgan Hill City Hall on Peak Avenue.

A war veteran, William Quenneville of Morgan Hill, was at City Hall while students protested on the front lawn as the police caravan kept a close eye on the whistling and hollering students.

“These students chose to be part of civil disobedience,” Quenneville said. “There’s a much more respectful way to do this.”

Quenneville said he thought the students who walked out should be suspended or even expelled.

There were no arrests made Thursday related to the march.

But, at least one resident said she was attacked by the mob.

Jennifer, who wanted to keep her last name private, said she was at the World Gas Station on Monterey at 11:50 a.m. Thursday when the march rolled past her while she pumped gas.

“They yelled ‘dumb white bitch!’ at me,” Jennifer said. “Police were everywhere, so I asked them if they were going to do anything, ‘that’s why we’re here’ they said.”

Jennifer said one teenager threw a rock at her husband’s car while he was driving through downtown. She said he filed a police report immediately after.

“You have a right to be proud of it,” Jennifer said. “But you don’t have the right to disrespect every other race.”

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