Two policemen walk over to a group of people gathered at the corner of Orange Ave. and McClellan Rd.
“Who’s running the show here?” a police officer says.
Della Flint, mother of three, assistant coach of the MVHS Bike Team and one of the organizers of the Memorial Ride steps out from the crowd in a purple and gold biking shirt to respond to the officer.
“This is just a grassroots campaign. It was only meant to honor Ethan.”
A man in the crowd then starts to tell the cluster of people about a gathering at the Cupertino City Council to protest a new housing development near Vallco Shopping Mall.
Flint cuts him off mid-sentence.
“Let’s not make it political right now,” she says firmly.
Originally, MV Bike Club had intended to host the Memorial Ride on Nov. 26 to honor the life of Ethan Wong.
However, the day before the event, Bike Club advisor and MVHS math and science teacher Deborah Frazier began to encounter problems.
The night before the event, Principal April Scott sent an email to event attendees indicating that the ride was canceled due to the risk of traffic concerns and the attendance of the general public. No Memorial Ride in honor of Wong would take place on the Monta Vista campus.
Flint scrounged what people she could to meet outside school grounds. An informal ride could still take place. Before the ride began, she held a short bike safety meeting.
“I’d also like to go down Hyannisport [because] there’s no-”
Flint broke into tears before she could say it is because there is no bike lane on Hyannisport. With the eyes of small children, rapt parents and the police on her, she cried as she thought about her own children and how her oldest biked to school every single day.
As she departed from the intersection, only 14 people followed her.
The 2.2 mile-long bike ride ended at Wong’s memorial on the side of McClellan Rd. The bikers took off their helmets and rested their bikes on the sidewalk.
“I am not sure what cultural thing everyone has,” Flint said. “But my son and I are going to hold hands and if anyone cares to join us, they are welcome to.”
Everyone stood in a circle holding hands in front of the memorial. Even with all the noise from the cars passing by and the kids outside of 7-11, the bikers had a moment of silence to honor Wong, pray for his family and promise to encourage community safety in Cupertino.
“I know studies and AP courses take priority in Cupertino,” Flint said. “But we cannot disregard safety.”
People present remained confused and angered as to why the school chose not to run the event. After the murder of Lynbrook High School graduate Chen Yuan “James” Hong in 2012, LHS hosted a public vigil on the campus.
However, MVHS chose to make the vigil and previously-scheduled Memorial Ride private to MVHS families and faculty. Despite the restriction, at the vigil itself, political leaders arrived to use the event as a social platform according to Frazier. Fear of a similar situation may have pushed MVHS to cancel the ride.
But Naomi Makihara, mother of a Cupertino High School alumnus and attendee at the bike ride, believed that was not a good enough reason to cancel the event.
“This thing with Wong has some kind of political ratification,” Makihara said. “Why doesn’t human life come first?”
In fact, though the event was originally selective to the MVHS community, no current students from the school attended. People who stayed behind speculated on why no students came. Some thought it may have been stress. Some thought it may have been forgetfulness. Some thought it may have been apprehension of the MVHS administration itself.
“In high school you’re just starting to learn how the political world works,” 2014 MVHS alumnus Malcolm Flint said. “That support I felt I never received.”
At about 4:30 PM, Della Flint pedaled back from the memorial to where she started, the corner of Orange and McClellan. Her daughter sprinted after her in a matching purple and gold shirt, reaching out for her mother’s outstretched arm.
Hand in hand, the two finished the ride.
