Nearly two-thirds of the students from Cross Keys High School didn’t show up to class today, apparently part of planned protests across metro Atlanta and the country to show the impact of immigrant representation.
DeKalb County School District officials said 786 of the school’s students, about 59 percent, missed school Thursday.
At least a dozen DeKalb County schools were missing more than 10 percent of their students Thursday. About 3,000 students were absent from schools in the Cross Keys cluster, where absentee rates averaged higher than 40 percent from each school. Those are schools along Buford Highway in north DeKalb County which service a large portion of the county’s immigrant population.
Several other schools throughout the district posted larger-than-normal absence rates, too. DeKalb County School District Superintendent Steve Green said in a statement Thursday afternoon that regardless of "A Day Without Immigrants" protests planned locally, classroom attendance was critical to student achievement.
“In light of recent events and social media comments, we stand firmly by our original statement that schools will be safe places for learning and teaching,” Green said. “Classroom attendance is essential to student achievement. Therefore, we respectfully ask parents and guardians to make sure your children attend school to benefit from instruction and avoid an unexcused absence.”
District officials could not say Thursday afternoon whether classroom attendance was impacted by the protests. In Cobb County, officials there said one school has noticeable absences.
In Gwinnett County, one in three schools saw massive absences, with more than 10 percent of the students missing Thursday.
Several schools in Fulton County had noticeable absences, but officials said it could have been due to protests, the upcoming extended weekend for Presidents Day or a flu virus that has been going around.
About the Author
