Lawyers for the Morgan Hill Unified District, former Principal
Nick Boden and former Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez recently
filed for a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the parents of
three of the four Live Oak High School students who were sent home
from school for wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de
Mayo.
Morgan Hill – Lawyers for the Morgan Hill Unified District, former Principal Nick Boden and former Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez recently filed for a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the parents of three of the four Live Oak High School students who were sent home from school for wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo.
“Essentially the court doesn’t have authority to hear the claims at issue,” said Alyson Cabrera, who is representing all three defendants named in the civil rights lawsuit. Cabrera said it was a “legally technical argument.”*U.S. District Judge James Ware is presiding over the case and approved an extension for the defendants to file a response to the initial lawsuit until Sept. 17 because the school district’s two lawyers, Cabrera and Stephanie Bradshaw of Gordon & Rees LLP, are also representing Boden and Rodriguez.
John and Dianna Dariano, parents of Matt Dariano, 16; Kurt and Julie Ann Fagerstrom, parents of Dominic Maciel, 15; and Kendall and Joy Jones on behalf of Daniel Galli, 16, are named as the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The suit was filed jointly by Los Angeles attorney William Becker and Ann Arbor, Mich. attorney Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center, a conservative Christian not-for-profit law firm, July 23 on the basis that the students’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated May 5. The suit seeks nominal damages, including a change to district policy and reimbursement of lawyer and legal fees.
Cabrera and Bradshaw are San Francisco-based lawyers who have experience in employment litigation and workplace investigations – were hired by the district soon after Superintendent Wes Smith’s office was served with the lawsuit June 28.
Becker said that a hearing is scheduled for Jan. 24 and his client’s opposition is due Jan. 3.
Becker said the plaintiffs believe a “permanent remedy is necessary to foreclose the school district’s ability to draft and implement speech policies that run afoul of the Constitution.” He said an agreement, such as one done informally between the parents and district officials in a meeting locally, would leave open the possibility that a negotiated policy can be modified in the future.
The decision by Rodriguez and Boden, called “extremely unfortunate” by Smith May 7, erupted into a media spectacle. TV news cameras from numerous outlets in the Bay Area and national news outlets, such as Fox News, CNN and MSNBC, were camped outside Live Oak May 6 and 7, and the Internet was inundated with debates about Arizona’s immigration policy to the rights of students younger than 18 on a public high school campus.
The four boys instantly became hometown celebrities, some doing both national and local television and radio interviews. Three of the boys were seen at a Saturday tea party demonstration in the weeks following the incident, taking photos, shaking hands and receiving high-fives.
About 40 percent of Live Oak students identify themselves as Hispanic and about 50 percent are white. The remaining 10 percent is spread across Asian, black and mixed-race students.
Boden and Rodriguez believed the boys’ display of patriotism would cause trouble on campus and possibly a fight as many Hispanic students simultaneously celebrated Cinco de Mayo, which included a lunchtime celebration for the Mexican holiday that marks the Mexican army’s victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.
