As the school year continues to pass by, we have made it to the coldest season of the year. The temperature this month has been seven to nine degrees lower than average. With the below-freezing weather, northern Virginia has received an unusual amount of snow, causing many schools to shut down. After Winter Break, many of Flint Hill’s surrounding public school districts closed for four days, and continued to have spontaneous closures in the weeks following. Flint Hill closed for two days, had a delayed start, and then resumed its regular schedule for students and faculty to begin the second semester. This vast difference in schedule brings up the question – what was the best procedure? What caused Flint Hill to stay open when other school facilities of the surrounding schools and similar private schools rivals deem the weather unsafe?

Understanding the circumstances and how surrounding districts decide their procedure is important for forming an opinion. For example, Fairfax County public schools are infamous for being overly cautious about weather conditions. Many believe this is caused by the events on January 6, 2015, when they chose to keep schools open as multiple inches fell. A Reston Now article quotes the superintendent, Karen Gaza, stating, “It is clear that our decision to keep schools open today was the wrong call given the intensity of this weather system. We are very sorry for that. We have heard from many of our families and we are listening.” Countless members of the community recall this day as “disastrous”, as busses failed to transport students in the conditions and worried parents outraged starting the “#CLOSEFCPS” movement online. This day, causing enough publicity to be written about in The Washington Post, is believed to have left a mark on FCPS faculty, causing them to be air on the safe side. 

Flint Hill has communicated with students that they have their own procedure for determining weather conditions, but the week after winter break left families wondering whether or not the right choices were being made. Flint Hill is not a group or school district, but the students are still coming from multiple locations. Thousands of community members commute to come to Flint Hill each day, and some have to brave roads of different conditions in order to get to school. Junior Stella Randall had an especially adverse time as, after parking her car, she had to walk from the student parking lot into school. The parking lot was not fully plowed and had patches of ice, causing Stella to trip and fall on her foot. Stella fractured her foot and is currently facing recovery, ending her varsity dive season early. Stella is not the only case, as numerous students reported sliding on the roads as student drivers and struggling to get to Flint Hill.

One other example is junior Brooke Crickenberger, who comes to school each day from Clifton and has to receive a drive to and from school due to her fear of the windy, slick roads. Junior Jackson Speer, another new driver, explained how it was so cold his windshield froze over in the morning. Junior Will Fennell explained how he drove to school without using mirrors due to his car’s malfunctions in the weather. The first day back from school after receiving one snow day and one asynchronous day was a delay, yet students were marked as an excused absence if they had difficulties. This suggests that the people making the decision were aware of the road conditions that might cause problems, yet still let school go on. While excusing the absence, this does not make up for the work students missed in-class instruction, and most students decided to take the chance in order to avoid having to make up school tasks.

We are lucky to go to a school where the schedule is organized for our benefit, but this January’s snowstorm left many students confused as to how the decision towards school staying open was made. Are the students in other schools’ safety prioritized more than ours or are there different circumstances these communities face? Were other schools being dramatic, meaning Flint Hill made the right choice? There is no black or white answer to the debate, but stories like those above and their classmates’ could have been prevented, proving that there should be more discussion around handling snow days.