‘Day Without Immigrants’ may void GRPS school day | WOODTV.com
Grand Rapids Public Schools expects to count Thursday as a snow day after an estimated 4,000 students failed to show up for class.
In a statement sent to 24 Hour News 8, GRPS Superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal said the district may not be able to count Thursday as a school day because it appears less than 75 percent of student attended class. The district will not have the final numbers until midnight, but if it cannot reach the 75 percent attendance threshold, Thursday will count as a snow day.
GRPS says the large number of absences may be due to the “Day Without Immigrants” nationwide protests, which are aimed at proving the importance of immigrants in America.
GRPS gets five snow days each academic year before the district must schedule make-up school days. Weatherall Neal says GRPS has already used two snow days this year.
The district said it had encouraged students to still come to school on Thursday. GRPS plans to send out robocalls, text messages, emails and social media posts to urge parents to make sure their children attend school on Friday.
“We certainly honor and respect our students and parents who participated in this national event. Now, it’s back to school time! So I am calling on all parents and guardians to join me in helping to ensure our kids are back to school tomorrow,” Weatherall Neal said in Thursday’s news release.
According to GRPS, the schools with the highest absences included Buchanan Elementary, Cesar E. Chavez Elementary, Westwood Middle, Harrison Park School, Burton Elementary, Union High, Innovation Central and SWCC.
Late Thursday afternoon, hundreds of Day Without Immigrants demonstrators marched along 28th Street to US-131 and then back to S. Division Avenue in metro Grand Rapids to protest President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration. They carried a banner that read, “un dia sin inmigrantes” — which translates to “a day without immigrants” — and chanted “The people united will never be divided.” Wyoming police responded to the scene because the protest, while peaceful, was disrupting traffic.