Live Oak High School (Morgan Hill, California)

Live Oak High School (LOHS) is a public high school in Morgan Hill, California. Designated as a California Gold Ribbon School in 2015, Live Oak is part of the Morgan Hill Unified School District.

Live Oak High School
Electronic signboard on East Main Avenue in front of Live Oak High School
Live Oak High School's electronic signboard
Address
Map
1505 East Main Ave.

,
United States
Coordinates37°08′52″N 121°38′08″W / 37.1477°N 121.6355°W / 37.1477; -121.6355
Information
TypePublic
Established1904
School districtMorgan Hill Unified School District
PrincipalTanya Calabretta
Staff49.32 (FTE)[1]
Grades9–12
Enrollment1,161 (2018–19)[1]
Student to teacher ratio23.54[1]
Color(s)Forest Green and Harvest Gold
  
SloganGo Nuts!
MascotAcorn
NewspaperThe Oak Leaf
Websitehttp://liveoak.mhusd.org/

History edit

 
The Live Oak Acorns.

Live Oak Union High School was established in 1904. Montgomery Hall was used to house the pupils for the first term. Construction of the first permanent facilities were completed in 1905. At the organization of Live Oak Union, Highland, Burnett, San Martin, Machado and Morgan Hill rural school districts were included, and, in August, 1921, Coyote, Llagas and Uvas districts were added. The name was later changed to Live Oak High School after the Morgan Hill Unified School District was established,[verification needed] which combined the aforementioned rural elementary school districts.

In 1940, a new campus was built on the north side of town, along Monterey Street, between West Central Avenue and Keystone Avenue. The main entrance was at 80 West Central Avenue.[2]

The school was moved from West Central Avenue to its present location at 1505 East Main Avenue in the summer of 1975.[2] The former campus on West Central Avenue was renamed and established as Lewis H. Britton Middle School. Due to the establishment of Britton Middle School, from 1979 Live Oak High School consisted only of grades 10 through 12, but as of the autumn of 2004, it once again functions as a four-year high school.

Cinco de Mayo incident edit

On May 5, 2010, five LOHS students arrived at school wearing T-shirts and bandanas bearing emblems of the American flag.[3] The school's administrators sent home four of them for refusing to remove the T-shirts on the Pueblan holiday of Cinco de Mayo. School officials deemed the garments "incendiary" and "disrespectful," fearing that displaying the American flag would incite fights with the Mexican-American student body. The four students were told they could choose to change their clothes or go home for the day.[4][5][6][7]

On May 6, approximately 200 Hispanic teens, most of whom were Live Oak High School students, walked out of their classes and marched through the downtown and to city hall in protest of what they regarded as disrespect from their American-flag-wearing peers. The crowd carried Mexican flags and sported the red, white and green of Mexico's national emblem. Two days later, a crowd of students led by several Hispanic students gathered in the amphitheater and held an anti-racism rally advocating acceptance and tolerance among the students.[6]

On May 10, the ACLU of Northern California sent a letter to the Morgan Hill Schools Superintendent protesting that the students' First Amendment rights had been violated and asking that the School District "take additional steps to inform students that their rights to free speech will be respected in the future".[8]

On November 8, 2011 United States District Court for the Northern District of California Chief Judge W. James Ware of San Francisco dismissed the students' lawsuit.[9] While public school students have the right to engage in non-disruptive free speech, Chief Judge Ware found this "does not require that school officials wait until disruption occurs before they act".[10] The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco affirmed the district court's ruling.[11][12] The student’s final appeal to the United States Supreme Court was denied without comment.[13]

Awards and rankings edit

Live Oak was designated as a California Gold Ribbon School in 2015.

Notable alumni edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c "Live Oak High". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  2. ^ a b Forster, Scott (2016-11-03). "Board unanimously approves $50 million plan for Britton". Retrieved 2016-12-19.
  3. ^ Phillips, Joseph C. (May 9, 2010). "Joseph C. Phillips: Of Flags and Cinco de Mayo". Opinion/Reviews. HipHop Republican. Archived from the original on May 16, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  4. ^ Kiriyama, Georgia (May 6, 2010). "Students Kicked Off Campus for Wearing American Flag Tees". NBC Bay Area.
  5. ^ Miller, Joshua Rhett (May 6, 2010). "California Students Sent Home for Wearing U.S. Flags on Cinco de Mayo". Fox News.
  6. ^ a b Bryant, Lindsay (May 6, 2010). "Hispanic students march through downtown for respect". Morgan Hill Times. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011.
  7. ^ "Live Oak High School Morgan Hill T-Shirt!". LALATE. May 6, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  8. ^ Harumi Mass, Julia (11 May 2010). "Students' American Flag T-Shirts Are Protected Speech". Retrieved 29 May 2010.
  9. ^ Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified Sch. Dist., 822 F. Supp. 2d 1037 (N.D. Cal. 2011).
  10. ^ "Court Backs School Ban of American Flag Shirts on Cinco de Mayo". HuffPost. 14 November 2011.
  11. ^ Volokh, Eugene (27 February 2014). "Not Safe to display American flag in American high school". The Washington Post. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  12. ^ Comment, Recent Cases - Ninth Circuit Denies Motion to Rehear En Banc Decision Permitting School Suppression of Potentially Violence-Provoking Speech, 128 Harv. L. Rev. 2066 (2015).
  13. ^ Richey, Warren (30 March 2015). "Does wearing American flag incite violence? Supreme Court lets stand ruling". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
    "Justices reject appeal by US flag-wearing students". Town Hall. Associated Press. 30 March 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  14. ^ Stone, Larry (October 31, 2012). "Vikings' Jared Allen channels his inner beast". The Seattle Times. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
  15. ^ Geissinger, Steve (August 20, 1989). "What demons drove Kings' Ricky Berry to commit suicide?". Deseret News. Associated Press via Deseret News. Retrieved March 23, 2013.
  16. ^ a b "Taking Flight: Live Oak using summer to line up improved season". Morgan Hill Times. 20 July 2004. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  17. ^ "Hometown favorite". Morgan Hill Times. 16 September 2023. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
  18. ^ Doherty, Paul (12 October 2007). "Catching up with... Ryan Neufeld". Morgan Hill Times. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  19. ^ Jauss, Bill (13 June 1995). "Sandberg's Successor Succeeds". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  20. ^ "Bob Stoddard Statistics and History". baseball-reference.com. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  21. ^ "Hometown favorite: Morgan Hill product Jimmy Vasser helps bring Champ Car racing "home" to San Jose". Morgan Hill Times. 30 July 2005. Retrieved 5 December 2016.

External links edit