Boy's death in Kentucky flooding raises questions about why school district didn't cancel classes
Boy's death in Kentucky flooding raises questions about why school district didn't cancel classes
A 9-year-old Kentucky boy who died in floodwaters while walking to catch his school bus is being remembered by his teacher as the “sweetest, kindest boy.”
The death of Gabriel Andrews stunned residents in the Bluegrass State’s capital city. The boy was caught in floodwaters early Friday while walking to the bus stop, police said. After an extensive search, his body was found about two hours after police were notified.
Gabriel’s death sparked questions from some who wondered why the Franklin County school district chose not to cancel in-person classes Friday when strong storms produced flash flooding.
My school took great pride in never canceling no matter what. Then Amber rolled her Mustang driving to school one icy morning and ended up in a wheelchair. Then admins started canceling school.
My school had two school shooting threats made the same week, and didn't cancel school. They just called the whole sheriff's department to play army at the school. Walking in looked like a scene from a movie in Nazi Germany, guys with guns at the door and dogs barking, APCs outside. I think there was even a helicopter at one point.
Then in March of 2020, we were supposed to come back from spring break, but the school STILL said that there was no danger because a county health offical said so. We almost went back to school until the state governor declared state of emergency and prohibited anyone from going to school.
That's just life in the USA
"But, it builds character!"
Whole lotta “Why do we do X?? X is dumb, let’s stop doing X. Oh shit, X blew up in our faces, that’s why we do X” going on in America right now.
You can shorten that to, fuck around, and find out. Some of these people are gonna feel the latter half of that real soon as they end up with bird-flu induced measles or some shit!
My question is why the fuck the parents thought sending their child to school by himself during flash flooding was a good idea?
The parents may have already gone to work, or they trusted the school to notify them if classes were cancelled.
Kind of hard to know unless the parents say. Maybe it would be good not to blame them without proof.
I believe the parents have a bigger responsibility for the child's safety than the school. The school should obviously have shut down, but in the end, the parents are the people who are supposed to keep the child safe, not some strangers. And I don't care wether the parents had already gone to work. If you live in a place where flash flooding can occour, you know the risk is there after strong storms. If the school is expected to know it was a risk, the parents should damn well know aswell.
The bus stop can be up to 1/4 mile away from the kids' house so it could have looked fine to walk to the bus from a weather perspective, but the route to the stop was the dangerous area.
The moment I heard about this, I immediately asked why he was on his way to school during a serious natural disaster. Why didn't the school close? Perhaps even more importantly, why didn't his parents say "I don't care that schools are open, nobody is leaving the house today?"
That poor kid died in terror, knowing that everybody with the responsibility to keep him safe, failed him.
I live in Florida, and if a hurricane was on the way, my kid wasn't going to school, no matter what the school decided. What's the downside, he misses a day of school? No single day of school is worth dying over, even on pizza day.
States have idiotic rules that schools must be open X days a year to receive funding. So schools do everything they can to stay open during disasters so they don't have to add days at the end of the school year.
It's always about funding.
A lot of idiot parents assume “if the school is open, it’s safe enough together go. If there was an actual problem they would close it.”
Yeah, I'm not abdicating my responsibility for my kid's LIFE to civil servants.
Maybe it's because I'm an older Dad, and most teachers/administrators were younger than me, or maybe its because I'm a business owner, and I have confidence in my own decisions over those of others, but I don't do what they tell me, they do what I tell them.
Every principle my son had, knew me by name. On Parent/ Teacher nights (which I NEVER missed), I always had a short meeting with the principle, and brought up any issues with my son, his teachers, and the school. I wasn't a Parent-zilla, but my son was particularly intelligent, and uniquely talented, and I did not tolerate bullshit when it came to his education. He was NOT going to fall through the cracks, and I made sure he didn't.
It's tragic, but it's great to hear about Murca having schools. I thought they were all just bible camps now.
Hey now, try to see the silver lining: Since we underpay our teachers and then also expect them to spend their own money on supplies and beg the class parents for the rest, that means SOME of the teachers are still there because they're passionate about it!
My son is in 2nd grade and we have had some great luck with teachers so far, but we are not a very "at risk" school district compared with the average.