SEND THE KIDS TO SCHOOL

The temperature is minus 4 degrees with wind chill of minus 15. The roads are clear - the heat is on at the schools. Bundle them up send them to school - they will be out playing in it anyway. I could see if we had 50 mile per hour winds - but the wind is a non-factor. Everyday the parents working in the private sector have to stay home from work to watch their kids the less money they make and the less money the schools get the next year. Many, many of the parents do not get paid unless they go to work - they are not all salaried. That is just my thought for the day.

I agree! Nice post. What kind of message are we sending to our kids?

That it is more fun to stay at home and play with G.I. Joes with your best friend Cal Naughton, Jr. than it is to attend school.

Life would be so much simpler for y'all if you just raced cars for a livin'.

... and what about playing with the smokin hot one??

We are a very heterogeneous society in all respects. Some of our kids can and would come prepared for the weather. Many students (due to no fault of their own) have to wait up to 30 minutes out in 20 below temps in barely more than a jacket, for a bus to pick them up. One can loose body parts in those kind of temps!

We have had teachers KILLED before driving into work in conditions such as we have had lately. It is worth it when we can make up the missed time by simply lengthening the school day 10 minutes more a day (what my district is going to do to make up for the last time)?

Sad that both Mom and Dad have to work. It would be nice if ONE of them could stay home and raise the kids. Some of our students get dropped off at 730am and are not picked up again until 6pm . . .

Last, most districts let you know the night before (whenever they can) so parents can plan accordingly (hire a sitter) in the event that one of them is not a 'stay at home mom or dad'.

Believe you me, with all the pressure of state testing and no child left behind -- administrators/teachers do not like missing school. Since I teach PE, I love it as no child left behind does not apply to me. ;-)

Just another point of view. . . .

Well said dwelsh. As I do understand the where smokey is coming from, in the grand scheme is it really worth it to put even one young person in harms way? The asnswer is simple...NO.

Frostbite is serious stuff. Although my nose is rather large and ugly, I do prefer keeping it. The same applies to my fingers and my toes.

Today will not be much different than tomorrows temps and road conditions maybe worse because of the melting and refreezing. Good lord the kids in Iowa, MN, NE, SD, ND and other northern states would only go to school August-October and then late March-May. They have to wait for buses also. Frostbite should not have been and issue - dress for the weather.

Current temperature 17 degrees and sunny.

Sioux City, Iowa has had school all week temp is lower and they have had more snow.

Jerry..I'm glad you pointed out that there are actually places not more than 300 miles away that are just as cold, if not colder, for longer periods of time, with similar economic diversity and somehow they seem to manage to go to work and school every day. Just how do they do it in MN, NE, WI, IA, ND, SD, MT, CO etc.?

It is always a parent's choice and right to keep their child home in inclement weather. Many do. Lots of days such as the ones we have had recently, even if school is officially open - parents will choose to keep their kids home. I have had classes that are normally as large as 25, have half as many in attendance on a bad weather day that we go.

And, some states are smarter than other states (ie. some will go bankrupt (CA for example) much sooner than others. Just because others do dumb things, does that mean we should? Schools are non-profit organizations. And as such, being closed a few days is not losing the state money. It is saving the state money. And, as somebody wisely stated, trying putting a price tag on a humans life. You can't. Now, I lived and grow up in this kind of situation (bad weather - chance of staying home) yet it didn't warp me. I STILL understand and accept that most other places of employment will be open for business (although not all of them - ie. my dentist had closed his office Monday and Tuesday of this week. How do I know? My wife cleans his office after hours).

Many of the above mentioned states are better prepared for bad weather regarding manpower and machinery. Maybe that is one of the reasons they are broke??? I don't know . . .

Then whole 'crazy' states were closing down parts of I-70 for hundreds and hundreds of miles. Don't they know how much money that will cost people? Many airlines shut down for days due to bad weather. Don't they know how much money and inconvenience this will cost people? I guess they figure it is not as inconvenient as lawsuits and funerals . . . An airline, a FOR PROFIT business. . . shutting down temporarily due to bad weather. How 'dumb'. . . .

Last, some cities get hit harder and some are better able to move/deal with the snow for some of the reasons stated above. Again, I like my nose, fingers and toes . . .

No blanket statement is made (ie. ALL KS SCHOOLS WILL BE CLOSED). It is on an individual school district basis. Many, many times - districts other than mine, just 15-30 miles away have been closed due to bad weather, but our 'mean, old superintendent' makes us go anyway! ;-)

It is not so simple and black and white. Think gray . . . And error on the side of caution. A human life is priceless. . . .

Yep. And, out here in JC - we had school on Thursday and will have it again today. I better hop into the shower!

Lets protect all of the dummies and pussifiers so we create more dummies and more pussifiers... When you regulate you end up weakening society as you take the ability to think and adapt out of life's equation.

In my humble opinion, closing school has nothing to do with regulating society. Every decision everybody makes anymore has to do with a fear of litigation. If they have school on a questionable day and a kid wrecks on the way to school the parents are likely going to take a shot at the district. I'm a hard core conservative, but the private sectors lust for lawsuits has brought a lot of this fear upon ourselves.

And the majority of lawmakers are litigators...

I don't get your point.

Lawyers don't sue people, clients sue people. Lawyers are there to do the work, and may encourage you to sue somebody if you are up late at night and have mesotheliomia, but ultimately it's individuals that make the decision to sue.

The private sector that has caused this problem and to pass the buck on to government for all of our problems is just making excuses and further *****ifying America.

It's all the same. It all falls under the "victim" umbrella. If you are dumb and have been pussified you naturally are a victim because your problem is always someone else's fault. Some parents prepare their kids for life while others prepare their kids for the system. It is people like school admins who get caught in the middle and too often (in my experience) pander to the victims. After all, the kids that are prepared are the ones that have won “life’s lottery” and it is their responsibility to carry the victims through life. At least that is the message I have gotten for the last couple decades LOUD AND CLEAR.

That being said, if only half the kids can make it to school there is not much point in having class.

When you grew up, wasn't it much more rare for your school to close down? Does it seem that today the mention of the "s" word has the bottom of the screen crawl loaded up with delays and closings? Don't you guys remember playing in the snow at recess? As much as we try to shelter and protect our kids, isn't it a good idea for them to learn that life can be difficult at times? You don't always get what you want. Sometimes doing the difficult thing is the challenge you are the most proud of.

We have become a litigious society. Just one lawsuit could cost a financially strapped school district millions. Business and public operations must make decisions on what lowers your liability and reduces your financial risk. Superintendents now err on the side of caution and close school much more often than they did in years' past.

So I know why they cancel class at the first sign of a snowflake, but wonder if kids would be better off if they had to tough it out. Would school kids benefit from a walk in the snow? Would it make them heartier?

Certainly we all are to take caution, dress warmly and drive slowly. To pull out the statement that those who believe we are weakening our kids are somehow callous about public safety, defines you as part of the problem! Icy, undriveable roads? Close schools. Cold but dry roads? Teach and grow stronger backbones!

I wonder if schools closing more than they did when we were kids has any correlation to there now being a significantly higher number of both parents working and a higher number of kids getting themselves ready for school?