Sights, sounds, and smells
It’s late afternoon. The boys are dancing and jiving to the music in their head. . . trying to impress the girls of course. Silliness abounds. A spider or two lurks in the corner. The girls look on, they are not amused. It’s loud. It’s smelly.
2:45 and we were still stuck in the locker room below our classroom. *ew*
As afternoon approached many schools around us were preparing for early dismissal. Severe weather was expected and the schools wanted to get the kids home before it started. My system decided not to dismiss early. This actually makes sense to me. Not all parents can come get their kids and not all kids have a weather safe home to go to. Nothing is stopping parents from checking their children out of school either. Parents started coming just before lunch. It was rather amusing to watch. By 9th grade lunch/study I had several students in first study and only one in second. The next period six of 16 students were there. I let them hang out. We talked about birds in the state and how weather radar works. It wasn’t a total educational loss. We were watching how the storms were splitting just before our city when the announcement was made to get to our safe place. It was really a surprise. No thunder. No lightening. No rain. Just wind…lots of wind.
I told them where to go and gathered up. From that classroom our safe place is in the hallway beside the gym. Since that hallway is nothing but a wind tunnel we moved the students into the boys locker room. Again I say *ew*.
Parents were still coming. We’re under a tornado warning and announcements are being made for this, that and the other student. My students were great. They did exactly what I needed them to do and took it seriously. The others were pretty good as well. The storms were all around us, but all we were getting was wind. By 2:20 students were restless and not thrilled with sitting in the locker room. By 2:40 the warning was lifted. We didn’t return to our rooms, but around 2:50 we allowed our locker room hostages to move to the gym and await the end of school.
The local forums are back and forth on the bus issue. Being the fence rider that I am, I can certainly see both sides. I still lean on the side that it isn’t necessary to let school out and has the potential to be even more dangerous. If parents are able to pick up their kids then fine. If not, follow the emergency plan.
What do you think? Close, send students home early or stay open, follow plan while allowing check outs?
January 10 2008 09:57 pm | Education
January 10th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
They closed my university down today. I got very bad here too.
Boys locker rooms always smell like that by the way. Some boys don’t believe in using the showers provided.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Better safe then sorry.
Why would you send kids out that might not have a place to go to?
What kind of a question is that?
No question.
Some people are and always will be Morons.
Sorry.
Honestly I think the people that are Pro “going home” are the ones that rather spend THEIR time at home and don’t particularly care about the students?
January 10th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
I think it comes down to liability, but either way that is going to be an issue.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
I’d say if a responsible caregiver or parent is willing to take a student home early, then fine. It’s a tough call. In Florida, if we knew well enough in advance, they would send everyone home. Just because if a storm is bad enough, their may not be enough supplies in the school, and parents may not be able to get to their children after…
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January 11th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
We got dismissed at the University at 1:30pm yesterday - and I joked with our dept. secretary that she was kicking me out, only to have to have me drive 40 minutes to get home.
I think an overall dismissal is dangerous because there’s no assurance that parents or anyone will come pick up the kids…thus making it even more dangerous for them.
January 11th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Thanks for your input!
January 14th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I would tend to agree with you, that kids would be safer in a sturdy building, than on the road somewhere.
Personally, I think they give way too much credit to our local weather forecasters who call for snow once a week now, it seems.
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