SANTA CRUZ >> Five of six defendants in a Highway 1 shutdown that protested proposed UC Santa Cruz tuition hikes were sentenced Monday to 30 days in jail, which likely will be served through a “custody alternative” such as community service, a judge ruled.

The students in May pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of creating a public nuisance and obstructing police. Monday in Santa Cruz County Superior Court, a few of the students expressed remorse to drivers for the roughly five hours it took for police and firefighters to unchain them near the Fishhook.

“I would like to apologize for the inconvenience,” said Sophia DiMatteo, a 19-year-old defendant.

Others, such as 28-year-old Lori Leigh Nixon, said in court, “I take full responsibility for my actions.” She and others continued to support their case against proposed university tuition hikes and police brutality, adding that “everything we hold dear” in America — from the Boston Tea Party to the civil rights movement — has roots in civil disobedience.

March 3, the group rented a U-Haul truck and coordinated with drivers behind them to slow down highway traffic near Highway 1 and Highway 17, prosecutor Crystal Andersen said in court. They stopped the truck, piled out of it and used dollies to wheel out four concrete-filled metal trash cans with pipes and chains in them.

They then chained their hands together through the pipes and blocked south Highway 1, prompting miles of backed-up traffic. About 85 law enforcement officers responded, with firefighters using a jackhammer to unchain them. About 5,400 drivers an hour typically use that stretch of highway during peak times, Andersen said.

“It’s not what was said that was problematic, it’s the way it was said,” Judge Denine Guy said in her ruling. She said the group was lucky no one crashed or was injured, unlike a similar protest on a bridge in San Mateo County.

“That is a deadly portion of roadway,” Guy said.

The other defendants were Alexander Pearce, 19, of San Francisco; Ethan Jacob Pezzolo, 19, of Santa Cruz; Janine Victoria Caceres, 21, of Los Angeles; and Sasha Lee Petterson, 19, of Oakland. Petterson was not sentenced Monday because of a death in the family and will be sentenced later, prosecutors said.

Judge Guy sentenced the group to 30 days in jail, excluding credit for the two and three days that the defendants already served in jail upon their arrests.

Guy said the defendants could ask sheriff’s deputies at the jail to put them in the Custody Alternatives Program rather than jail, which would mean community service, work release or an electronic monitor.

Prosecutor Rob Wade said those alternatives are at the discretion of deputies and there is no strict calculation as to how many community service hours might be required. Guy also sentenced the group to probation and $541 in fines due in 2016.

Separately, the students have been suspended from UCSC until January. Many said they lost their campus housing, meal plan and health care because of the university administrators’ decision.

Yearly tuition and fees for state residents at UCSC is $12,192, not including books, housing and food, said UCSC spokesman Guy Lasnier. The UC regents had voted to raise the annual tuition up to 5 percent each year through the 2019-2020, but state leaders in May decided to freeze tuition costs until the 2017-18 school year.

During the sentencing hearing, Scott French of Santa Cruz-based Las Animas Concrete testified that he was caught in the traffic jam and lost at least $8,000 worth of materials. He said he would not seek restitution at a Tuesday restitution hearing because he didn’t want to deal wit it.

“I just want them to realize they made a real bad day for us,” French said.