Snow Days

The term “Snow Day” conjures up a variety of emotions. To some this term is one of pure elation because it means a day out of school. The fact that a warmer day out of school was lost does not dampen the excitement of seeing your county on the television scroll or receiving a phone call or text from the school. Teachers and students alike have been known to wait anxiously for the announcement that school is canceled.

Many parents on the other hand cringe at the thought of having to find something to do with their young children. Many will lose a day of vacation, others will have to pay for a sitter and some are fortunate enough to have family that is retired that would love to keep the kids for a day. Snow days many times brings on anxiety trying to find alternate plans for their children.

There is no perfect decision when it comes to making a call on weather related closures and delays. For the most part, crystal ball companies have gone out of business and short of a crystal ball reading there is no way to definitively know what is going to happen and when. School systems get tagged alarmist or lazy if they call off school too much or early and labeled as uncaring and cold if they do not dismiss school soon enough.  Thoughts of children being stranded at school away from their parents cause parents and school officials both to feel great anxiety. Even worse is the thought of a bus losing control on an icy hill and causing harm to precious children.

The people that have to make this call most assuredly take all scenarios into account when making these laborious decisions. I am not one of these people so I am not justifying my actions but I do know how much thought and investigation goes into these decisions. Most school systems will rightly error on the side of caution. The worse scenario is to do anything that increases the likelihood of harm coming to students. Delays and cancellations are never easy for anyone and will continue to stir emotions, but at the end of the day, safety tops everything.