Police Break Up Protest At Bergen Tech

The Bergen County Police Department broke up a protest at Bergen County Technical High School on Thursday.

Several dozen students walked out of school at noon to protest what they saw as a lack of recognition for Osbrany Montes De Oca, a lance corporal with the Marines who was killed in Afghanistan on Friday.

Students are upset that the flags at BCTHS weren't being flown at half staff in his honor, said Sean Michael Massaro, 18, a student at the school. Montes De Osca, 20, attended Bergen Technical High School before enlisting.

"Our principal should have done what was moral," Massaro, a Glen Rock resident, said. "Sometimes you need to break the rules to do what's right."

Massaro said he wasn't sure if he and the other students involved in the protest would be punished.

Superintendent Howard Lerner said the school had a request in with Gov. Chris Christie to lower the flag on behalf of Montes De Osca. He said the school can only lower the flag after a governmental or presidential decree.

The school on Thursday received an order to lower the flag on Friday for Whitney Houston.

Lerner said this process was explained to students and they returned to class.

Ray Rossi of NJ101.5 asked why flags were being flown at half-staff across the state for singer Whitney Houston and not Montes De Oca.

Christie responded on Wednesday to criticism over his decision to lower the flags.