La Salette Closure Splits Up Best Friends

This article was reported and written by Leslie Ellis.

Alex Beverly has been crying herself to sleep.

The nine-year-old and her best friend Jaime Saliba will be forced apart this fall for the first time since their pre-kindergarten days at Our Lady of La Salette Catholic School and Academy in Berkley. 

Alex, who lives in Detroit, will attend St. Mary Catholic School in Royal Oak while Jaime, who lives in Berkley, will attend Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Beverly Hills following La Salette's closure at the end of the 2012-2013 academic year.

"We're very sad and emotional," Alex said while seated next to Jaime in their fourth-grade, multi-age classroom June 8 during an alumni reunion at the school. "I really just wanted to feel the rhythm of the school one last time, the connection I have with it."

Jaime, 9, added that "everyone's been crying all the time" since they learned La Salette would close.

"It's like, most kids go to school and they're like, 'I don't want to be here,' and I'm just happy to be here and see my friends and see my teachers (Miss Giasson and Mrs. Boura)," she said.

Alex's mom Michaele Miller of Detroit said the process of leaving La Salette has been "heart-wrenching" and her daughter has been crying herself to sleep.

She said many La Salette families have tried to stay together and even toured other Catholic schools as a group. At least five La Salette families will enroll their students at St. Mary in the fall, Miller said.

Jaime's father Jim Saliba of Berkley, whose two older daughters also attended La Salette, said he valued the school for its diversity of race and religion, as well as the fact that its students hailed from different cities.

"I thought that was the best thing my kids could learn: Everyone's equal in God's eyes," he said. "We're fortunate the kids got a great education here."