cn0408_0160
3/25/08
4:28 PM
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chaldean kids’ day off Skip Day is controversial BY CAROLINE M. BACALL
I
t’s getting closer to the end of the school year. It’s getting warmer outside, and school is getting hectic. Monday through Friday, same time, same classes and a heavy homework load. The solution? Chaldean Skip Day — a well-known tradition in which many Chaldean students from different high schools skip a day of school and rent a bus with their friends to go to Cedar Point — the Ohio amusement park. School administrators are less than thrilled with the tradition. What truly infuriates them is the fact that some Chaldean parents assist in organizing the event by renting the buses. Cathy Ferguson, the ESL (English as a Second Language) Coordinator of the Walled Lake School District said about 160 Chaldean students from Walled Lake Western alone skipped last year. “Two things concern me,” she said. “They’re missing a day of school to have fun … that’s the academic perspective.” Ferguson’s also said that the Skip Day may mislead the surrounding community to form “a negative stereotype that Chaldeans don’t care about education.” Nuhooth Oraha, an ESL paraeducator who taught for 29 years at Southfield Lathrup before retiring in 2007, noticed an increase of absences on Skip Day within her last 10 years of teaching. She recalled the attempts teachers would use in trying to prevent Chaldean Skip Day. “They would give exams on the same day and if they didn’t show up, they would get a zero on their test” — which worked with some students but not all, said Oraha. Chris Kajy, a senior attending Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, likes Skip Day. “It’s always good when all 36 CHALDEAN NEWS
APRIL 2008
the Chaldeans get together,” he said. “You get to meet new people.” However, after three years, Kajy said the tradition is “getting old” and that he plans to skip Skip Day this year. Davena David, a 2006 graduate from Troy High School recalls “good memories” from Skip Day, and remembers the whole experience including the bus ride there being “fun in itself. It’s like going on a road trip.”
then technically they’re not skipping,” said Neuhoff. Enforcement of attendance policies seems to play a crucial role, as Eastside and Westside district policies are drastically different. Attendance policies for some high schools on the Westside do not correlate a student’s absences with a student’s grades, Therefore, students could skip consistently without having to worry about their academic record. On the contrary, some high school districts
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Skip Day is also used as a way out for students with strict parents. “For some people, it was the only time their parents allowed them to be with all of their friends,” David said. Catherine Neuhoff, assistant principal of Warren Mott High School, indicated that Skip Day hasn’t become a problem; the school’s rules and regulations are strict enough where students comply with no problem. In addition to school rules, a call from a parent or guardian confirms the student’s whereabouts. “If their parents know where they are,
on the Eastside have attendance policies that directly coincide with their academic record; if the rules are not complied with, students may be required to take summer classes because they have lost credits during the school year as a result of constant skipping. Skip Day has also been noticed in middle schools as well. In order to set a good example, “high school kids should be more responsible,” Ferguson said. “The staff will continue to talk with students.”