Hi,
I'm a school governor and it frustrates me as well. I asked our head and he has to take into account the safety of children parents and staff travelling too and from the school. The biggest worry is children being stranded at the school if parents cannot get back because of the snow. Often he had to guess whether things will get better as the day goes on. It is always a hard call and not one he makes lightly.
Hi Pipedream
Out of interest, does your head also take account of the risks implicit in kids NOT being in school as a consequence of the closure.
For example, kids who are really too young to be left alone at home being there because their parents can't afford the time off work? Or the risk that they will go tobogganing and break something?
I was reading recently about schools in the US who had closed after one of the school shootings, and did not re-open until certain security measures had been installed. This was done in the name of the children's safety.
However, statistically children out of school meet with more accidents and misadventures than they do in the classroom. As a consequence of the "safety-driven" school closures, many children had accidents, and some died, who probably would not have done so had they been in school.
All because of a compartmentalised approach to risk.
After 9/11, people stopped flying, and many drove instead. Because driving is way more risky than flying (even in Sept 2001!), about 1800 more people died on America's roads - the unmentioned casualties of faulty risk assessment.
