OCEANA COUNTY, Mich. — Each year school leaders in the Hart Public School District build their calendar to meet all of the state's instructional requirements, and so students can have opening day of the firearm deer season off.
Hart Superintendent Mark Platt says it's an easy decision to make especially when opening day falls on a Friday.
"Hunting is a big deal around here," Platt says.
If school were to be held on opening day, attendance would likely plummet so low the state wouldn't count the day.
"You have got to have 70 percent attendance for the day to count," Platt says.
On Hart High School student Cassidy Copenhaver's cell phone are photos of the deer she's killed since learning to hunt with her dad at age 9.
"An 8-point is the biggest deer I've ever shot," Copenhaver says.
Students like Copenhaver and classmate Chance Alvesteffer say they'd likely skip school if it was in session on opening day.
"I've been raised in the woods," Alvesteffer says. "It's time in the woods to reconnect with nature and to put meat in our fridge to live and it's a lifestyle."
Other lakeshore schools joining Hart in taking opening day, or "deer day" off included Newaygo, White Cloud, and Hesperia.
Firearm deer season runs from Nov. 15 to Nov. 30.
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