At the beginning of the week of Halloween, Summit sophomore Maxwell Keevon Jones created a petition on Change.org asking MISD to cancel school on Nov. 1.
Jones sent the petition to a couple of his friends and posted it on Snapchat and Instagram. After he fell asleep, Jones woke up to find the petition had over 5,000 signatures. Now, the petition has over 11,000 signatures and the number continues to grow.
“It was really just a joke at first,” Jones said. “Everyone said they wanted to go trick-or-treating, and then I said I didn’t want to go to school the next day then everyone else said they didn’t want to go to school.”
Jones’s plans wouldn’t change drastically if classes were canceled.
“I just didn’t know anyone was going to sign it,” Jones said. “[If MISD canceled school on Friday] I have basketball practice, but after that, I’d just stay home.”
Superintendent Dr. Jim Vaszauskas is the ultimate determinate for the cancellation of school. Dr. V knows of the petition and called Dr. Butler and the other high school principals to inform them he will not cancel school on Friday.
“I am glad students understand the way to create change, but you don’t always get a yes even though you want something,” Dr. Butler said.
MISD receives funds from the state according to the student attendance for each school day. If every Legacy student were to skip school on Friday, the district would lose all the revenue from the day. Students continued to sign the petition in hopes of a day off.
“Really other than [after Halloween] there are not many school days off for the rest of the year,” sophomore Dillon Schembera said. “[If MISD had canceled school on Friday] I would probably spend the day streaming my games.”
