Paradise Freezes Over for Kids

Why were schools closed for two days?

Did it have something to do with the weather?

It's hard to tell.

I thought it was too dangerous to go outside.

The children needed to be protected.

Maybe not.

From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

When Gail Chan heard that school for the Greendale School District was called off Tuesday over the cold weather, she moved fast to hook up her daughter and the neighborhood children for a day of fun.

"We all got on the phone and made a game plan," she said.

Chan and her daughter, Maya, a second-grader at Canterbury Elementary School, headed out into the frigid weather en route to a warm and steamy water park in Waukesha that was packed with schoolchildren.

Cold temperatures prompted school districts across southeastern Wisconsin to shut down classes Tuesday, in some cases for the second straight day, but the weather didn't keep schoolchildren - or teachers - from venturing out to malls, movie theaters, entertainment centers and water parks.

"You could definitely tell that the schools were out and people were out at the mall," said Nancy Conley, senior marketing manager at Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa. "I've also noticed a lot of moms in the mall with grade-school children."

YIPPEE!

Brutal, bitter cold temperatures! Let's go out and have some fun! Make hay while the mercury drops!

...But the closures didn't sit well with Jeanne Tarantino, who has three children in the Waukesha School District and sees the closures as "a softening of our people."

"Yesterday was colder than today," she said. "How long are they going to be out of school? All week?"

Good questions.

The wind chills for Wednesday are predicted to be as low as -25.

It doesn't make sense that school needed to cancelled on Tuesday, to protect the children, but not today or the rest of the week.

...Others said schools made the right move so children wouldn't have to endure the freeze while waiting at bus stops or walking to school.

"I think it's just too cold to have kids waiting for the bus," Randy Beres, a reading specialist at Canterbury, said as she soaked in a hot tub at the Country Springs' water park. "I think it's a great little winter break for the kids."

What?

"A great little winter break"?

That wasn't the purpose of the closings.

...Wauwatosa School District Superintendent Phil Ertl said he struggled before deciding to shut down school for the second day Tuesday, coming down on the side of avoiding risk to students.

...Ertl said the decision came down to whether the weather constituted a risk for students' well-being.

"I think we save the risk of 7,000 students," he said. "If one has problems, it becomes a good decision."

So the reasoning is that if one student would have a problem because of the cold, then school should be closed for all 7, 000 students.

That's nuts.

Any parent could choose to keep their child home if it would be necessary, just like on any other day.

Explain to me how the weather constituted a risk for students' well-being when so many managed to get out and crawl around the malls, movie theaters, and water parks.

What did the events of the past two frigid days in Wisconsin reveal?

It's not necessary to close school and let the children stay home when the wind chills are dangerously low.

Why?

THEY DON'T STAY AT HOME.