Canceling school the right call
This is in response to James Clark’s comments in the May 9 edition of the Standard. I must say I have endured many of your editorials and have thought of writing a response before, but none have prompted me to action the way the comments did in your latest editorial.
Your comment regarding the school system’s inclement weather days as, “I don’t want to go to school days” was ridiculous. Let me clarify a few things for you.
If you will think back, the first couple of days we were out, the tornado warnings were quite frequent, along with the flash flood warnings. I was thankful I could take my children to our basement at home and not worry if they were safe at school. I was also thankful I was not responsible for a roomful of students.
Yes, that’s right. I am an employee of the school system and I know what I am speaking of when I say you were misguided in your comments.
Obviously you’ve never been in a room full of panicked school children when a tornado drill sounds, much less when they suspect it’s the real thing. Also, I suspect you’ve never been the parent of a child who is at school while bad weather is occurring and you are scared out of your wits.
Is it also safe to say you’ve never been on a school bus trying to get a bus load full of children home over a flooded road? I didn’t think so.
Dr. Hale saved the taxpayers of our county an untold amount of money those days he closed schools. And, heaven forbid, if a tornado had hit one of our schools, he would have been called a hero for his wisdom and foresight in closing them ahead of time.
Sincerely,
Leigh Dinwiddie
Special education teacher
100 E. King Street
Morrison