BY LEXI MARELLI (’18)

Icy roads, snow covered streets and black ice. This makes for very dangerous driving conditions, especially for the many new student drivers.

So far this winter there have been countless days where the weather conditions have been bad or it has been extremely cold. However, we have only had two delays, and we have not had any snow days this year.

There have been too many days so far this school year when we should have been closed and haven’t been. This includes the two days it started snowing at school, and we were only released twenty minutes early. The road conditions on these days were less than favorable for student drivers.

That day, on December 13th,  there were multiple crashes with students involved. One of these crashes was with juniors Sydney Super and Monique Jardell on their way home from school. Their car slid on the icy roads while trying to avoid someone sliding from the other direction, and they went off the road. As well as physical damage to the car, both girls had injuries from the crash. This was not the only crash that took place that day. Seniors Kate Duncan and Kyler Torres both got into accidents during the school day as well.  It took most students twice the amount of time to get home as it does on normal school days as well. Many students felt they were sliding around every turn, myself included.

These occurrences could have been easily prevented if the school had released the students at noon, when it started snowing heavily.

There has also been a lot of debate on when the school should delay or close based on temperature. We have had multiple days this year where the temperature with wind chill has been below zero degrees.

That is too cold to send students to school, especially since some students have to ride the bus and wait outside for extended amounts of time.

The superintendent I’m sure has the best intentions in mind, and wants to do what is best for the students. It is never easy regrouping after missed days due to weather, so cancelling as little as possible is ideal.

While education is very important, it is normal to have bad weather during the year and the safety of the students is far more important than having a full school week, or a full school day.

I believe that as winter continues and the weather becomes more severe, there will be many more opportunities for school delays and closings, and I hope that the decision made will be in the best interest of the kids, because in every case, it is much better to be safe than sorry when it comes to the lives of students.