District 68 administrators said that on Veterans Day in 2015, it was unlikely that many Skokie School District 68 students spent much time thinking about those who fought for their country.
So this year, the district changed a long-standing tradition of closing its doors on Veterans Day, partially to combat that indifference, and also to reduce disruptions to the school week since Old Orchard Junior High had closed for Election Day earlier in the week. The result was that for the first time, students attended class on Veterans Day. But administrators said they hoped the day wasn’t like a typical school day.
“The (school board) realized that kids are probably not sitting at home thinking about the veterans when they’re off school,” Old Orchard Principal Robyn Huemmer said . “This was a really nice way for our students to learn about Veterans Day.”
Huemmer oversaw a school-wide assembly Friday afternoon in which 11 veterans attended. The veterans either had a child or a grandchild enrolled at Old Orchard Junior High or they were graduates of the school themselves.
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“The ones that are here are for the most part related to our students,” Huemmer said. “We sent out an email to all of our families. We actually have a former student coming back.”
Army veteran Ricardo Hardy, dressed in military uniform Friday, was there with daughter Rikayla, an Old Orchard Junior High sixth-grader.
He said he joined the Army in 2010 and was deployed in 2011 to Afghanistan, where he experienced many “difficult things.” But Hardy said he loves events such as the one Old Orchard Junior High held Friday.
“Events like these show appreciation for what I did and what others did for our country,” he said. “It was not easy for us and so I really appreciate these kind of recognitions.”
Sanford Parker, a veteran who said he was born in 1934 and trained by the famous Tuskegee Airmen, attended the assembly with two younger generations of family — his son Eric and his grandson Dylan, a sixth-grader at Old Orchard Junior High.
He said attending the assembly with two other generations of his family holds great meaning to him.
Parker and other veterans were recognized at the Old Orchard Junior High assembly. They were called to the stage, alongside their children or grandchildren, to be given an ovation.
“Your Old Orchard family salutes you,” Huemmer said at one point.
Before the assembly, Huemmer said, students wrote letters and held a candy drive for soldiers.
The event also included the Skokie Police Department Honor Guard, patriotic music from Old Orchard Junior High’s student musicians and a video to which different families contributed relating their family member’s experience in the military.
Some in the audience — including students — wiped away tears during the showing.
Seventh-grader Jamie Acido read a poem had written titled “Homage to a Great Heart.”
“Today is a day where we celebrate the people who protect the soil we stand on,” Jamie said. “I’m not only here to talk about how they succeeded; I’m here to talk about how they struggled.”
Veterans Day for the next couple of years falls on the weekend, so it’s not likely an assembly of this scale will happen again any time soon, Huemmer said.
“We’ll definitely be teaching about this in our social studies classes,” she said. “Students really got excited about the whole project. It’s been a great learning opportunity for them.”
Twitter: @SKReview_Mike