Keo Sok, a custodian at Union City Middle School, recently passed the U.S. citizenship test with the support of the school´s students and staff. Sok is a native of Cambodia and lived there under the Khmer Rouge regime. (John Grap/The Enquirer)
Keo Sok, a custodian at Union City Middle School, sits with fifth-grade teacher Klaudia Fisher. Students and staff at the school helped Sok study for his citizenship test. (John Grap/The Enquirer)Ryan Holland • The Enquirer • August 22, 2008
UNION CITY — When Keo Sok, a custodian at Union City Middle School, traveled to Detroit to take his U.S. citizenship exam in July, it wasn't just the 100 history and government questions running through his head.
He had the hopes of this small town riding on him.
"Keo mentioned how much pressure he felt because the community was behind it," eighth-grade social studies teacher Larry Bruce said, "and how if he would have went there and things wouldn't have gone right ... ."
Sok, sitting amid the clutter of the middle school's August cleanup on Thursday, finished the sentence. "Then I fail the whole town."
Sok, now a resident alien, was born in Cambodia and has been living in Union City for almost 28 years.
When teachers and administrators at this roughly 1,100-student district decided to help the 48-year-old become a U.S. citizen last winter, Sok, having failed once about 20 years ago, accepted the challenge with a bit of apprehension.
Bruce and Klaudia Fisher, a fifth-grade teacher, led the charge — getting students to take the daunting citizenship exam themselves and posting new sample questions on a cafeteria bulletin board every day.
"Sometimes at lunchtime, I sit down to eat, and (the students) ask and I have to answer it," Sok said. "That's the only way I learn. When you get old, you hardly remember things, and if you have a kid asking over and over and over, you will be remembering."
The learning process went both ways. Students also learned about Cambodia's people and past. Sok was on hand to provide a harrowing history lesson himself.
In 1975, Sok's parents and siblings were summarily executed by the Khmer Rouge, the radical Marxist group that controlled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The Khmer Rouge is blamed for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people from starvation, murder and over-work.
"They lined them up. Kill them," Sok said. "It took me twenty-some years to get over it."
Sok's father was a high-ranking Cambodian military official with the previous regime. As Sok put it, his family "they said was a root that they pull out so it don't grow back."
Sok, who was living with his aunt at the time, changed his last name to hide his identity and escape what would have been his own execution. He worked, as did almost all Cambodians under Pol Pot, in labor camps from dawn to dusk on a handful of rice each day.
The work ethic co-workers rave about was forged in the fields, where those who lagged behind were called into a "meeting" and killed.
In 1979, at the age of 18, Sok and three others realized that with the Vietnamese army invading Cambodia, there would be little chance to survive if they stayed put. They escaped and started the 150-mile trek from Phnom Penh to the Thai border.
Caught in the crossfire of Vietnamese and Cambodian soldiers, Sok didn't "walk straight on the road; I walk around all the boulders and mountains and stuff." After two months and four gunshot wounds, Sok and the others made it safely to Thailand.
From a Thailand Red Cross station, Sok and his new wife, whom he married after he arrived in Thailand, went to the Philippines and made it to the U.S. through the sponsorship of three Union City area churches in 1980.
Sok found work at Union City Industries Inc. doing maintenance and started working part-time at Union City Community Schools in 1989. He accepted a full-time custodian position in 1996.
All four of his children have graduated from or are attending Union City schools. His 28-year-old son, David, has served two tours of duty as a U.S. Marine in Iraq.
And while he has since separated from his wife, he has had the steady support of Union City, a small, rural town of about 1,800 people. The residents and employees have always known Sok's smile and ease, but the citizenship push started in January with a schoolwide assembly.
"When Keo came in, and the kids had been told ahead of time for the first time what was going on, they just cheered," Fisher said. "It was so cool because they just have such a great relationship with him. They really wanted him to succeed."
"It was one of those things where (you say), 'Hey, you know, one of our janitors — a guy you've been seeing every day — let me tell you a little bit about his story and what he went through," Bruce said.
On July 21, Sok went to Detroit and took the test, a 100-question oral exam given by an immigration official. His $675 application fee was covered by donations from Union City residents.
"I missed one question," Sok said. "I got mixed up with the one that was when the (Declaration) of Independence was written. I missed on that one, but that's it."
Sok was quick to point out that he is not an official U.S. citizen yet. He still must take his oath of allegiance, which might take up to two or three months. But, he said, "I got the hard part done."
Bruce said he is trying to see if a judge can administer the oath in Union City, so that Sok can enjoy his moment in the town that has given him so much.
"All I can say (to all the residents, employees and students) is super good," Sok said. "I want to say more than that, but I don't know how."
UNION CITY — When Keo Sok, a custodian at Union City Middle School, traveled to Detroit to take his U.S. citizenship exam in July, it wasn't just the 100 history and government questions running through his head.
He had the hopes of this small town riding on him.
"Keo mentioned how much pressure he felt because the community was behind it," eighth-grade social studies teacher Larry Bruce said, "and how if he would have went there and things wouldn't have gone right ... ."
Sok, sitting amid the clutter of the middle school's August cleanup on Thursday, finished the sentence. "Then I fail the whole town."
Sok, now a resident alien, was born in Cambodia and has been living in Union City for almost 28 years.
When teachers and administrators at this roughly 1,100-student district decided to help the 48-year-old become a U.S. citizen last winter, Sok, having failed once about 20 years ago, accepted the challenge with a bit of apprehension.
Bruce and Klaudia Fisher, a fifth-grade teacher, led the charge — getting students to take the daunting citizenship exam themselves and posting new sample questions on a cafeteria bulletin board every day.
"Sometimes at lunchtime, I sit down to eat, and (the students) ask and I have to answer it," Sok said. "That's the only way I learn. When you get old, you hardly remember things, and if you have a kid asking over and over and over, you will be remembering."
The learning process went both ways. Students also learned about Cambodia's people and past. Sok was on hand to provide a harrowing history lesson himself.
In 1975, Sok's parents and siblings were summarily executed by the Khmer Rouge, the radical Marxist group that controlled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The Khmer Rouge is blamed for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people from starvation, murder and over-work.
"They lined them up. Kill them," Sok said. "It took me twenty-some years to get over it."
Sok's father was a high-ranking Cambodian military official with the previous regime. As Sok put it, his family "they said was a root that they pull out so it don't grow back."
Sok, who was living with his aunt at the time, changed his last name to hide his identity and escape what would have been his own execution. He worked, as did almost all Cambodians under Pol Pot, in labor camps from dawn to dusk on a handful of rice each day.
The work ethic co-workers rave about was forged in the fields, where those who lagged behind were called into a "meeting" and killed.
In 1979, at the age of 18, Sok and three others realized that with the Vietnamese army invading Cambodia, there would be little chance to survive if they stayed put. They escaped and started the 150-mile trek from Phnom Penh to the Thai border.
Caught in the crossfire of Vietnamese and Cambodian soldiers, Sok didn't "walk straight on the road; I walk around all the boulders and mountains and stuff." After two months and four gunshot wounds, Sok and the others made it safely to Thailand.
From a Thailand Red Cross station, Sok and his new wife, whom he married after he arrived in Thailand, went to the Philippines and made it to the U.S. through the sponsorship of three Union City area churches in 1980.
Sok found work at Union City Industries Inc. doing maintenance and started working part-time at Union City Community Schools in 1989. He accepted a full-time custodian position in 1996.
All four of his children have graduated from or are attending Union City schools. His 28-year-old son, David, has served two tours of duty as a U.S. Marine in Iraq.
And while he has since separated from his wife, he has had the steady support of Union City, a small, rural town of about 1,800 people. The residents and employees have always known Sok's smile and ease, but the citizenship push started in January with a schoolwide assembly.
"When Keo came in, and the kids had been told ahead of time for the first time what was going on, they just cheered," Fisher said. "It was so cool because they just have such a great relationship with him. They really wanted him to succeed."
"It was one of those things where (you say), 'Hey, you know, one of our janitors — a guy you've been seeing every day — let me tell you a little bit about his story and what he went through," Bruce said.
On July 21, Sok went to Detroit and took the test, a 100-question oral exam given by an immigration official. His $675 application fee was covered by donations from Union City residents.
"I missed one question," Sok said. "I got mixed up with the one that was when the (Declaration) of Independence was written. I missed on that one, but that's it."
Sok was quick to point out that he is not an official U.S. citizen yet. He still must take his oath of allegiance, which might take up to two or three months. But, he said, "I got the hard part done."
Bruce said he is trying to see if a judge can administer the oath in Union City, so that Sok can enjoy his moment in the town that has given him so much.
"All I can say (to all the residents, employees and students) is super good," Sok said. "I want to say more than that, but I don't know how."
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