School Closing and Delay Discussion 2020

[WesL]

So like many of you I remember sitting through many tornado events in the hallway with a book over my head. The only time we got out early for weather was when the snow was actually falling and occasionally when the Governor declared a State of Emergency for a hurricane. Some would argue that things have changed today and school systems are quick to dismiss or cancel classes for anything that puts students at risk. Which brings us to this discussion from Brad Travis (WAFF-48 Huntsville, AL) last night....



Naturally, this sparked a discussion on his page. This apparently caught the eye of the Superintendent of Marshall, Co Schools who shared this post this morning. (I attempted to embed the post but apparently they have disabled the post from being embedded. Here is a screenshot, I've removed a comment from a friend simply because it wasn't the focus of me including this post)




My youngest child goes to Morgan Co. Schools (AL) and they have had a great policy in place for several years. As the parent it is at our discretion to determine when the roads are safe enough to go to school. This is really important because in that area there are a lot of hills, shaded areas and potential flood areas that all have some type of embedded hazard depending on the weather of the day. All they ask is the parent communicate with them on the hazard and they will excuse the absence or late arrival.

So I'm curious what everyone else thinks about this?

 

[KoD]

I hadn't ever heard of a school getting delayed/cancelled for severe weather until after 4/27/11, not in Huntsville or Texarkana anyway. As for winter weather/black ice I think schools are being more abundantly cautious than they used to, and that's a good thing to me. I'm sure there's some people who are inconvenienced with scheduling but if it saves property or lives, seems like a small price to pay. Can't make everyone happy in this situation.

 

[Kory]

Only time we ever had school cancelled was for hurricanes and ongoing flooding in Louisiana. Outside of that when I moved to Alabama, UA had the occasional snow day but rarely cancelled class for severe weather sans 4/27/11 after the tornado hit. UA administration became very gun shy after the 2014 snowpocalypse and now seems to close more than ever after that. But even then, I think we had maybe 4 or 5 snow days in my time as a student (no longer anymore) post 2014.

 

[Kory]

For Hurricane Katrina, I was in middle school. We had no school for 6 weeks. As a kid, no school for that long was a seemingly fun thought. Until the gravity of the situation began to sink in...things might never be normal again.

The 2005-2006 school year was a unique and unprecedented one. Most after school activities, sports, whatever it be were cancelled. Majority of schools were operating out of mobile buildings or not at all. The infrastructure was heavily damaged and I distinctly remember the local soccer fields and football stadium being used for storm debris. Oh, and pretty much forget about off for the holidays.