A small group of self-described patriots showed up at a Morgan Hill school on Cinco de Mayo waving American flags hoping to keep alive a freedom of speech vs. school safety debate that was ultimately settled by the U.S. Supreme Court when the justices decided not to take the case in March.
"All the courts got it wrong and we don’t agree with them finding our flag offensive," said Gilroy Morgan Hill Patriot member Georgine Scott-Codiga. "Basically the court said it’s OK to bully people in order to threaten violence in order to get your way.”
As for Lloyd Webb, the principal of Live Oak High, the issue is something that happened in 2010, and the students just want to "have a regular school day."
While the case has been tied up in court, what's different now is that there are no patriotic-clothing restrictions, Webb said. Students can wear American-flag colors and Mexican-flag colors.
"We realize that there are different viewpoints," Webb said. "And there's a high level of tolerance on campus. We just roll with it and everyone gets along just fine."
None of the students or administrators involved in the battle five years ago attend or work at the school any longer.
On March 30, the U.S. Supreme Court declined - without any explanation - to take up a free speech case that was sparked over a handful of boys wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo in 2010. A federal appeals court in San Francisco also refused to reconsider Dariano vs. Morgan Hill Unified School District in 2014.
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That all means that a lower court ruling in favor of then- Live Oak High School Principal Nick Boden and Vice Principal Miguel Rodriguez to stand. The administrators had asked a group of boys to change or hide their red-white-and-blue clothes and T-shirts by turning them inside out out of concern about violence that might break out on Cinco de Mayo in a school that has a heavy Latino makeup.
The May 5 holiday commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces. And the administrators worried that the blatant American flag symbols on a day honoring Mexican pride would instigate violence on campus.
Still, for the second consecutive year, the "patriotic" club has been out at the school, waving flags, standing along the sidewalk of the school so that they can "exercise their First Amendment rights," as the group states on its Facebook page.
Kendall Jones, a stepfather of one of the students originally involved in the case, added: "We’re not stomping all over school and showing anybody up. We’re just reminding people, hey, don’t forget how important this flag is.”
