On Jan. 12, McIntosh High School canceled school and allowed students to stay home, with the reason of unsafe weather conditions. 

According to Atlanta News First, the concerns were on “…isolated tornadoes and strong damaging winds between about 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. All of north Georgia is under a level 2 threat (out of 5) for severe weather.”

The school board posted an announcement for canceling school due to “the likelihood for severe weather” despite the “severe weather” only being moderate rainfall. Canceling school from caution alone not only pushes behind academic advancement for students and planning for teachers, but also affects extracurricular engagement and is often an unnecessary action. Light weather advisories are not enough to justify the large disruption to the school schedule, and virtual learning is not a sufficient enough substitute for in-person instruction. 

Safe transportation was a main concern with the weather. In a district where golf carts are the main transportation for more than half of the student body, it does seem reasonable that bad weather could pose dangers for many students. Even in cars, students are unreliable drivers in the heavy rain that was experienced. However, on Friday, Jan. 12, school was canceled when the rain wasn’t even set to occur when students were entering or leaving the school. 

A light risk to transportation, that can be minimized through careful driving, does not outweigh the safety of students being in the school building for the majority of the day once they arrive. Public transportation exists if parents or students feel their vehicles are not safe enough, and delays are also a preferable and less disruptive alternative to canceling a whole day of instruction. 

Although days off school are enjoyable, there are far more downsides than upsides. Students may be happy for a day of sleeping in and watching TV, but when students come back to school a full day of learning has been taken and tests, quizzes and project deadlines become closer and closer. Not only are the students affected, teachers’ lesson plans are now not on schedule. 

Canceling school suddenly puts a lot of pressure on teachers to quickly make up assignments and activities for virtual learning. Not being able to come to school gives the students less time to learn the important information they need for quizzes and tests. Many students start to fall behind as teachers had to rush to make new assignments and had to delay quizzes and assessments.

For students taking advanced placement classes, the schedule is carefully set up, and setbacks to learning the material can cost valuable points that could lower AP scores, which translates to college credit. Any impediment to the school day should only be made if absolutely necessary. 

Also, losing school days can result in having to make up for lost time from learning and instruction. The Fayette County Public schools website announced their decision to convert two early release days “to full instructional days for students” 

Canceling school also impacted any events such as sport games, plays and other extracurricular events that were postponed. The value of extracurriculars cannot be overstated. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “These activities offer opportunities for students to learn the values of teamwork, individual and group responsibility, physical strength and endurance, competition, diversity, and a sense of culture and community.”

The student-directed Thespian Variety show originally planned for Friday night, had to be canceled and rescheduled. The school and extracurricular activities being canceled greatly inconvenienced the group because they had to reschedule the entire show and rehearsals. This meant communicating with 27 students, 7 parent volunteers, and the troupe leader. 

Jan. 12 was made into a virtual learning day for students, in an attempt to minimize the disruption. However, the suggestion that virtual learning could be an alternative to keep students safe and not lead to delays in learning is naively assuming that virtual learning is equivalent to the full value of students being in the classroom. 

According to the National Library of Medicine, “Without the face-to-face component, learning and teaching became a completely different experience for students and teachers.” This experience is often lacking compared to regular instruction. 

The less time in class the less time students have to ask teachers questions and learn content for assessments. Virtual learning does not help students learn especially students who are hands on and need to physically see what they are learning.