School system made the right decision

Published 6:33 pm Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Before the sun even thought of making its appearance Wednesday morning, officials with Suffolk Public Schools were driving area roads, seeing if they were safe for school buses.

They drove down highways and city streets, backcountry roads and main thoroughfares and came to the conclusion that having school buses on the road during the unpleasant winter weather experience was not the best idea.

So the decision was made to shut down the school system for the day, leaving children to enjoy what we all hope is the final snow day of the school year.

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But, that decision, unfortunately, has been met with criticism, second-guessing and downright anger.

It appears, that opposition to the school closing is not based on any logic, but simply because the system has decided to hold Saturday classes to make up for the missed day.

Already, students have begun posting comments on their Facebook pages saying they will not attend because of a practice or because such a move would infringe on their social calendar.

Parents have said such a move would require them to disrupt plans already made so their children could (“gasp!”) go to school. Or, they’ve suggested that teachers who are now scheduled to work won’t give it their all or won’t teach a full lesson plan, because even they don’t want to work on a Saturday.

In short, they are calling it a wasted day.

We have a few questions for those complaining about the school system’s plans:

Would they have preferred to give up a day of their spring break?

Would they have preferred to extend the school year another day or two?

Would they have felt better about themselves and their plans if the school system had forced school children and buses to go out on unsafe roads?

What if a bus had gone of the side of the road and children were injured? Would these same complainers spoken up then?

In this decision to close schools Wednesday — and in the decision to hold Saturday classes — we wholeheartedly agree with the school system. Officials erred on the side of caution and on the side of keeping our children safe. By holding Saturday classes so close to the missed day, they also erred on the side of our children’s education.

We hope the naysayers Wednesday will reconsider their comments and thank the system for having their children’s safety and education at heart.