Schools close for student safety in bad weather

    Murphy – Bill Grove is one local parent who completely agrees when schools close if there is even a threat of inclement weather. When he attended classes in the 1980s in Hayesville, weather caused problems twice during his bus rides.
    When he was about 11, it started to snow during the school day, and the district dismissed classes early. However, when his bus attempted to go up a hill on a road between Hayesville and Peachtree, it got stuck.
    At the time, Grove said he and his classmates thought it was funny. They enjoyed playing in the snow as they waited to be rescued and for the bus to be towed.
    A few years later, he was on the bus during a heavy rainstorm. They went up a dirt road to a student’s house, and on the way back down, the road washed out under the bus’ tires. The bus ended up rolling, landing on the roof.
    Grove broke his collarbone. The bus driver, an older high school student, broke her hand trying to break open a window. Another student was knocked out and had to be carried off the bus by classmates.
    “That one was far more scary,” Grove said.
    The last time a Cherokee County school bus was involved in a serious accident due to weather was in January 1996. A car skidded on ice on N.C. 294 and collided head-on with a Hiwassee Dam School bus.
    A 12-year-old child in the car died on the scene from injuries suffered in the accident, according to an article in the Cherokee Scout. Eight others, including three students on the bus, were injured.
    Then-superintendent Gary Steppe faced criticism for why school was even held that day.
    According to another article in the Scout, there was a sudden decrease in temperature from 6-8 a.m. that morning, causing the icy conditions cited in the wreck. Steppe said when the decision was made at 6 a.m. to keep schools open, information he had from principals, law enforcement and the N.C. Department of Transportation indicated roads were safe.
    On Thursday morning, Cherokee County Schools first announced a delayed opening, then closed schools after an overnight snowfall caused icy road conditions for more than 20 percent of the district. Superintendent Jeana Conley said she consulted the DOT, as well as local law enforcement, to help her in making the decision.
    While many people on social media praised the decision to close schools, a small number criticized it.
    Some speculated that one solution would be to let those who can safely attend school on days weather is only an issue for some parts of the county.
    “There are several reasons that closing individual schools in weather-related instances won’t work,” Conley said.
    She added that the biggest one is that the district’s intensive intervention classes are all held at either The Oaks Academy or within the Murphy subdistrict. If they do not provide transportation to identified exceptional needs students on a day one school is open, the district has denied those students Free Appropriate Public Education – a right required by the Individuals with Disabilities Act – for that day.
    Other reasons include that the Oaks serves the entire county, buses are used by multiple schools for staggered routes and school systems are not protected from legal liability in what the state deems “reasonable decisions.”
    Schools were also closed Friday due to the threat of wintry weather. All surrounding counties also closed all their campuses Thursday and Friday.
    As of Friday, Cherokee County Schools had used seven of the eight days of extraneous instructional hours built in for emergency closings. If the last day is used, the Cherokee County Board of Education would need to amend the school calendar to make up additional missed days.
    Conley said they would poll principals on when to best make up days, reassuring that spring break from April 13-17 would be protected.