For a second straight year, members of the Gilroy-Morgan Hill Patriots have planned a May 5 demonstration in front of Live Oak High School to show their “support of free speech honoring our U.S. Flag,” according to the group’s president, Georgine Scott-Codiga.
“The Patriots’ purpose in gathering is to promote awareness of the court’s decision in Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified School District limiting First Amendment rights by portraying our U.S. Flag, a national positive symbol of freedom and patriotism, as ‘offensive,’” announced Scott-Codiga in an April 27 press release.
An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, made by a law firm representing the families of the students involved in the 2010 Cinco de Mayo incident at LOHS, was denied in March. That latest decision came years after a federal judge, as well as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled in favor of the school district.
The case, debated nationally and pitting student safety against the First Amendment right of free speech, involved four former LOHS students who were asked to remove or cover up their American patriotic garb on the 2010 Cinco de Mayo holiday. The students refused and were sent home by school administrators, who believed they were defusing a possible volatile situation between that quartet and Mexican students who felt disrespected by them, according to court documents.
Cinco de Mayo is a holiday celebrated in the U.S. as a recognition of Mexican heritage and culture. It is celebrated in the Mexican state of Puebla to honor the Mexican army’s victory over French forces in the Battle of Puebla May 5, 1862.
Last year, the Patriots held up 10-foot white poles with American flags attached while standing on both sides of East Main Avenue in front of LOHS as students arrived to school. Many parents elected to keep their children home from school that day, as there was a heavy police presence on and near the campus.
A group of motorcyclists rode through town together and then gathered in front of LOHS in the afternoon around dismissal time and recited the Pledge of Allegiance in a separate demonstration. Later that same day, a third group—which heeded LOHS students’ request not to counter-protest in front of their school—held a Cinco de Mayo celebration at a local park.
This coming Tuesday, May 5, between 7-8 a.m., the Patriots—designating themselves a grassroots group of citizens based in the San Jose suburbs of Gilroy and Morgan—will stage a “peaceful rally” at a public location in front of LOHS, 1505 E. Main Ave.
