My Sister Is Still In Her Car! (Not DC)

[BrooklynM]

I feel for your sister. That must have been horrible. Being a teacher, I'm sure she wanted to be there for her kids! My sister in law is a teacher in the Midwest and I'm always asking her- how do you know when the schools close? She says- oh they show it on TV. I'm like- with digital technology they can't automatically dial everyone's numbers or send out mass texts? I mean it seems like there could be several ways to get ahold of the teachers and in plenty of time before school starts.

We don't have to deal with that here since it doesn't snow but whenever there is an emergency of some sort or something major happens at a school, they have an automatic dialing system that calls everyone and there is a recorded message. For example, we live pretty close to a jail (a few miles) and an inmate escaped. They called everyone within minutes of the escape, and also sent out a mass email.

Do they do that where you guys live? Or is it like where my sister in law lives and it's just learning things by the news?

[Play Care]

Maybe I'm misguided, but I by no means think kids NEED school. Their life does not depend on it. At least not to the point where they can not miss a day or two when weather puts their lives at risk.

If they want to find decent jobs, be able to provide for themselves and their families, school might be a good idea. Just sayin'

[Play Care]

Those policies are ridiculous. I can't believe corporations find their place of work so much more important than their employees' safety .

It comes down to MONEY. If they declare a SOE and the storm missed the area or wasn't as bad as predicted the state would lose tons of money. I've had ONE job where I got snow days - but all that meant was that instead of driving around to see my clients I had to drive to the office and work there.

Most of the jobs I've had require you to show if the office is open.

[Play Care]

I feel for your sister. That must have been horrible. Being a teacher, I'm sure she wanted to be there for her kids! My sister in law is a teacher in the Midwest and I'm always asking her- how do you know when the schools close? She says- oh they show it on TV. I'm like- with digital technology they can't automatically dial everyone's numbers or send out mass texts? I mean it seems like there could be several ways to get ahold of the teachers and in plenty of time before school starts.

We don't have to deal with that here since it doesn't snow but whenever there is an emergency of some sort or something major happens at a school, they have an automatic dialing system that calls everyone and there is a recorded message. For example, we live pretty close to a jail (a few miles) and an inmate escaped. They called everyone within minutes of the escape, and also sent out a mass email.

Do they do that where you guys live? Or is it like where my sister in law lives and it's just learning things by the news?

We have the phone thing - which is so nice! DH is a teacher and it used to be a phone tree. He would get a call at 4:00AM from another teacher then he would have to call the next teacher on the list...Now it's all automated. Not sure about where my sister is. When she wakes up I'll text to ask::

[Unregistered]

The big storm that hit the east coast in December I believe, my neices work was PICKING employess up if they thought they wouldn't be able to drive! They were told not to call in because they would lose their jobs so asked to be picked up.

Wow oh wow oh wow!

[daycarediva]

We had severe weather Monday-Tuesday. Monday school closed. Tuesday, they had a 2 hour delay, but remained open. My dh went out to check the roads and called me because he needed to turn around at the end of our street to come home, visibility and roads were that bad. We did NOT send our kids to school. We got a chastising email from the superintendent (sent to everyone, but obviously meant for those of us who kept our kids home).

I am glad your sister is safe! What a nightmare!!!

[Play Care]

We had severe weather Monday-Tuesday. Monday school closed. Tuesday, they had a 2 hour delay, but remained open. My dh went out to check the roads and called me because he needed to turn around at the end of our street to come home, visibility and roads were that bad. We did NOT send our kids to school. We got a chastising email from the superintendent (sent to everyone, but obviously meant for those of us who kept our kids home).

I am glad your sister is safe! What a nightmare!!!

Thanks! I gather from another Atlanta friend that the storm hadn't hit until mid morning - and the weather forecast was very ambiguous - it *might* hit, it *could* be bad, etc. now we've had forecasts like that and they close schools just in case and nothing hits...that was why you see so many people out and stranded. I maintain that by mid morning schools should have closed - and incidentally those that closed the earliest had all their kids home. The ones that waited had kids stranded.
I know that had it already started/ roads were bad before the commute my sister would have stayed home.

[KidGrind]

I have a lot of friends in Georgia (I went to high school there) and one post on Facebook last night was a shared post about a daycare bus full of kids being stuck out there. This is exactly what you just said....avoid sending kids to daycare when the weather is known to be severe! Can you imagine the poor bus driver (and hopefully assistant) with a bunch of toddlers and preschoolers all night in that weather?!

What a mess!

[melilley]

I feel for your sister. That must have been horrible. Being a teacher, I'm sure she wanted to be there for her kids! My sister in law is a teacher in the Midwest and I'm always asking her- how do you know when the schools close? She says- oh they show it on TV. I'm like- with digital technology they can't automatically dial everyone's numbers or send out mass texts? I mean it seems like there could be several ways to get ahold of the teachers and in plenty of time before school starts.

We don't have to deal with that here since it doesn't snow but whenever there is an emergency of some sort or something major happens at a school, they have an automatic dialing system that calls everyone and there is a recorded message. For example, we live pretty close to a jail (a few miles) and an inmate escaped. They called everyone within minutes of the escape, and also sent out a mass email.

Do they do that where you guys live? Or is it like where my sister in law lives and it's just learning things by the news?

Here our schools call us either the night before they close or around 5:30am the day that they close or have a delay.

[safechner]

I am so glad I am not live in Georgia for past 15 years! However, my family live in Marietta area. I am so embarrassed they never prepared to close schools, works, etc if they knew it is coming. Usually, THIS IS NOT FIRST TIME! It happened in 1993 and I was stuck in school for 4 days. I was not able to go home.

My brother in law was stuck in the car for hours but he finally made it home this late last night. Someone hit his car but there is nothing he can do about it. I was pretty mad at the government for not prepare for this bad weather and they should have sand on the road like it should be. Ha, they will not prepare for the future if it happens again like this. Shame on Georgia!

[My3cents]

Maybe I'm misguided, but I by no means think kids NEED school. Their life does not depend on it. At least not to the point where they can not miss a day or two when weather puts their lives at risk.

[MNMommy2]

Maybe I'm misguided, but I by no means think kids NEED school. Their life does not depend on it. At least not to the point where they can not miss a day or two when weather puts their lives at risk.

I have to say I agree with this. We have had at least 4 days off this MONTH alone due to cold weather. I would much rather have the days made up at the end of the year than risk exposing kids to -60 degree wind chills. and REALLY, those 4 days are not going to matter in the end. They will be made up and I am quite sure that the kids will still grow up able to find a job.

[Bookworm]

Being from the South, we take winter storm warnings seriously. The Atlanta situation was truly shocking. Normally we get notifications at least a week in advance so we begin to make preparations early. You know, better safe than sorry. SC got the same snow storm Atlanta got but we had been preparing since Sunday. I just can't understand why Atlanta wasn't ready for something they knew was coming that had the potential for every problem they've encountered.

[Play Care]

I have to say I agree with this. We have had at least 4 days off this MONTH alone due to cold weather. I would much rather have the days made up at the end of the year than risk exposing kids to -60 degree wind chills. and REALLY, those 4 days are not going to matter in the end. They will be made up and I am quite sure that the kids will still grow up able to find a job.

Eh, sure, if the child has only missed for weather relates closings. Heaven forbid they've been out ill or had any other issues.
And really, if the school closes, no biggie. But for parents of children who receive special services in school, missing days is a big deal.