What I love about school delays and cancellations

[Orrex]

Without fail, any time our district cancels or delays the school day due to weather, a chorus of assholes shows up on the town's FB page to howl about how spoiled These Kids Today are, and how Back In My Day We Had It So Much Worse. Uphill Both Ways, etc. Blah blah blah.

Half of these jerks don't have kids anyway, so why the hell should they care? And the other half are my age, so Back In Their Day is Back In My Day, too, and I know when they're full of shit!

Know what else we had Back In My Day, you shitheads? Art class. And lunches cooked on site. And recess. And phys ed. And after-school activities. And 20 kids in a class.

I don't hear them bellyaching about any of these deficiences, but when some higher-up decided not to flash-freeze a bunch of kindergartners, all of a sudden it's a major catastrophe.

Buncha jackasses!

[geardaddy]

1. Seriously though

back in my day, we rarely had school closings and the ones we did have we had to come in and then they'd close the school at noon or something.

But yeah, I get what you're saying. It's better to have the schools closed on crappy days.

[In_The_Wind]

2. Back In My Day

We didn't get any school closings where I grew up in the South.

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[csziggy]

9. We did in Florida for hurricanes

When I was in kindergarten we had a day off for snow. February 13, 1958 it snowed in central Florida. Just a trace, it didn't stick once the sun came up, but it freaked out everybody and they pretty much declared a holiday. The next day when the snow was all gone our kindergarten class made a snowman out of cotton batting. The picture of the snowman made it into the town paper.

[pstokely]

3. A lot of schools will cancel when it's just too cold, even when there's no snow

Then can lose state $ if attendance is too low, people might keep their kids at home simply because it's cold

[Orrex]

6. That's what we wound up doing, in fact

Someone will no doubt jump in to tell me how much colder it is where they live, but wind chill of -10 is enough to convince me not to send my 6-year-old out to the bus stop.

[pstokely]

4. When I was your age

[pstokely]

5. These people probably vote against any school bond issues

"When didn't need no air conditioning or computers at school when I was your age"

[Archae]

7. Just to be honest here...

No "back in my day" crapola...

I did live a mile and a quarter from the school, and on a day like today (-5 right now) school would be closed.
This was during the 1970's, Howards Grove, WI. (Small town near Sheboygan.)

We lived at first outside the town, and had to wait for the school bus, in temperatures of 10 degrees with strong west winds every winter.
Then we moved into Howards grove proper, and we found out we were one block east from the last street that had a bus.
And they wouldn't let us ride the bus, so we had to walk the mile and a quarter in the same conditions.
Walking TO school wasn't too bad, the wind was at our backs.
Walking home was worse since we faced into the wind.
We soon learned the game of "Run from garages to houses on the way home to get out of the wind."

I would wear a snowmobile suit. But any exposed skin (especially on my face) would be just plain cold.

[Orrex]

8. I dispute none of that, and I'd like to add that...

Even though (or because?) I endured unpleasant conditions on my way to school, I'd rather spare my kids the same pointless discomfort.

The district's bus contractor operates under a policy of "doing the bare minimum required by state law, or less," so they've already made the service as inconvenient as possible.

What ultimately steams me isn't the "best of luck to you" attitude of the bus contractor; it's the smug harrumphing on FB by the "I'm a bigger victim" crowd.

[tinymontgomery]

10. The other side is

that if there is a bus accident due to weather, and road conditions, that the parents will then be up in arms about why didn't they cancel school.

Last year the superintendent and head transportation manager went out at 4:30 and started to check the roads ensuring they were safe. At 5:30 they conclude the roads are safe and proceed with sending out the busses temp is 38 deg. At 7:00 the temp dips to 30 deg. shock freeze, and black ice forms. Car of 3 students running late take turn speeding, hit ice (rural area, lots of curves) slides off road, 2 dead one badly injured.

By 8:15 temp is back to 40 deg. ice is gone. Community and especially parents are screaming how the superintendent should have canceled school, known better etc. Investigation by state including weather date etc shows that at 5:00 everything was safe.

If school is canceled then some parents have a fit because now they have to find someone to watch the kids. I know that for single parents and such that is hard but again school is not a baby sitting service.

Super was dammed if he did and dammed if he didn't. I sure wouldn't want to be the one that has to make the call.