SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. (KRON) — Car parades have become the new way to celebrate birthdays and graduations across the Bay Area.
But in Santa Clara County, the drive-by festivities now being told to stop.
“There’s definitely a frustration on our part not being able to recognized at least having a drive thru graduation,” Chris Funk said.
East Side Union School District Superintendent Chris Funk says the schools wanted to celebrate the class of 2020 at the flea market parking lot.
The idea and his request was shot down by the county’s emergency center.
“I get public health’s concern that we might not be able to control the crowd outside of the location,” he said. “We would do a drive thru but we can certainly control who enters the drive thru.”
For the first time this week, Santa Clara County issued an explicit ban for these kinds of celebrations.
On its website, the county says in part, “parades, ceremonies and similar gatherings with people outside of your house are not allowed, even if everyone stays in their cars.”
Los Gatos-Monte Sereno police have marshaled several of these kinds of parades and shared the videos on YouTube.
The explicit ban has put South Bay police in a challenging position because they’re supposed to enforce the shelter in place order, along with the East Side School District.
San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia has also expressed his displeasure with the county mandate.
On Twitter he said his officers will not cite and arrest people unless there’s a balant violation.
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