Mom, daughter never missed a school day
Not once in 13 years — from kindergarten's separation anxiety through senior skip day — was Nastassia Kelley ever marked absent.
Not when her great-grandmother died. Neither time her grandmother was in the hospital. And not even when she, herself, was sick.
"Call me if you don't start to feel better," her mother, Glennett Kelley, would say, packing her off to school sniffling.
Nastassia graduated this year from Avondale High School in DeKalb County with perfect attendance honors for showing up for all of the 2,340 days the school doors were open.
"In our household, education came first," her mom said. "It was the same when I was growing up." Exactly the same. Indeed, Nastassia's mom holds the same record for perfect attendance for each and every one of her school days, said Rita Warwell, Avondale's administrative assistant and choral director.
"Avondale is one of the older, dying high schools in the county with a very high discipline problem," Warwell said, "so it is no easy feat to come to school day after day and not ever miss."
Warwell said she's heard all kinds of excuses.
"Things as simple as a student not liking the teacher or the teacher not liking them," she said. "One kid told me once he stayed home because he didn't want to read."
But not the Kelleys.
Even on days her daughter didn't feel well, Nastassia's mom says she would divert her attention. On occasion, she'd go to the school and dispense medicine or just sit with her daughter for a while. But she never allowed her to leave school. Being an only child of a working mother, the alternative would've been to spend the day home alone.
"I hope this doesn't sound cruel," said Kelley, a Fulton County detention officer, "but kids need to be in school or some type of activity to keep them motivated and out of trouble."
Kelley said she made sure her daughter was involved in extra-curricular activities, including the marching band, chorus and various clubs. During the summer, she enrolled her in camps.
Sticking with it is so ingrained now, not even graduation has ended it.
"I went today sick. I didn't want to miss my test," said a stuffed-up Nastassia, who is taking a class at Georgia Perimeter's Clarkston campus and working on extending the perfect attendance streak in college.
"I think she turned out pretty good," Glennett Kelley said. " I'm proud of her."
That goes double for Glennett's mother and Nastassia's grandmother, Elizabeth Kelley, laughing as she recalls the sacrifices her family made to make sure Nastassia never missed school. For instance, she said, instead of attending her mother's or brothers' funerals in Tennessee, they opted to just go to the wakes.
"We'd drive up and turn around and come back," Elizabeth Kelley said. "Everybody knew why, and they understood."
When her daughter Glennett didn't want to go to school, Elizabeth Kelley said she reminded her that come awards day, even if she hadn't made it onto the honor roll, she could still be standing because students with perfect attendance were always recognized, too.
"It was exciting because she always had perfect attendance," Elizabeth Kelley said. "She loved it and so did I. Now I've got two I can be proud of."