Live Oak High staff and Morgan Hill Police have been
increasingly vigilant in recent weeks, as an increase in violence
on the campus caused Principal Nancy Serigstad to request a
stronger police presence on the campus last Friday.
Live Oak High staff and Morgan Hill Police have been increasingly vigilant in recent weeks, as an increase in violence on the campus caused Principal Nancy Serigstad to request a stronger police presence on the campus last Friday.
MHPD Interim Chief Bruce Cumming told representatives from the City of Morgan Hill and the Morgan Hill Board of Education, as well as this year’s Leadership Morgan Hill class during Friday’s City/School Liaison Committee meeting that he was providing more officers in anticipation of unrest.
“We have recently seen an upswing in student misbehavior on the Live Oak campus,” he said. “Today, after a request from Principal Serigstad and Assistant Superintendent Denise Tate, we will have our SRO (school resource officer) Max (Cervantes) and our former SRO, Mindy Rojas, on the campus.”
Four male students were arrested after a fight on the campus on Friday; two of them were cited and released to their parents and two were taken to juvenile hall.
Superintendent Carolyn McKennan said during Friday morning’s committee meeting that the school was preparing for incidents possibly related to the day being “Friday the 13th.”
Serigstad said there are certain times of the year the Live Oak staff increases its vigilance, recognizing the possibility of some sort of trouble on the campus.
“There are some known times of crisis,” she said Friday. “One is before vacation, then there can be problems when you have rallies, and there are also more problems during testing, when tensions run high.”
District schools began their President’s Week holiday on Monday.
Serigstad said, however, that there had been an increase in the number of incidents recently.
“Last week, we had two fights,” she said Friday. “And then there was the incident with two groups of girls that really got out of hand.
“They were apparently text messaging each other, and they got angry. One group of girls called friends (to come join the fight); the other group called parents and uncles, who brought pit bulls. We, of course, had to call the police. This is not the norm here. This is absolutely outrageous.”
The recent spate of violent incidents at Live Oak High could be related to the influx of students direct from stints at juvenile hall.
According to Serigstad, students coming into the school “directly from incarceration” are problems waiting to happen.
“If they don’t have the opportunity to go somewhere first, a kind-of adjustment period, for example the South County special day class, then they haven’t had a chance to re-enter gently,” she said. “They come directly to the campus, and we wait for them to explode. And we’re seeing some kids moved in that are pretty sophisticated, more savvy, more vocal. We’re seeing an increase in gang activity.”
Serigstad said there are eight students at Live Oak that have been incarcerated who were removed from San Jose schools for a variety of problems.
Trustee Shelle Thomas, who said she heard about the increase in violence from teachers, said she was very upset that the Live Oak students and staff should have to come into contact with this type of behavior.
“Why are these students on our campus,” she asked. “We need to find out how this happened.”
District officials were unavailable for questions due to the vacation week.
Serigstad said the Live Oak staff is closely watching the situation.
“We are dealing with it, and dealing with it aggressively,” she said. “When these problems start, they’re very easy to spot because they are so out of place. We can move in quickly and get a handle on them. The MHPD is also being very responsive and supporting us in our efforts.”
