NEW ORLEANS — Parents of students in Jefferson Parish Public Schools and some Orleans Parish Public schools were furious that their children’s schools didn’t call off class in the face of extremely rare severe weather conditions that were forecast for Wednesday.
In Orleans at least some parents had to wade into floodwaters to get their children out of class at Andrew Wilson Charter School. InspireNOLA Schools, which is the charter that runs Wilson, said, “All InspireNOLA students and staff arrived to school and returned home safely. We continue to prioritize creating a safe learning environment for our school community.”
While in Jefferson Parish, schools delayed letting students go at dismissal as dozens of major roadways were under water, including West Esplanade and West Metairie, where canals overflowed, erasing a distinction between the street and canal.
Jefferson Parish public schools did not cancel class Wednesday though severe weather was a near certainty, though they did dismiss class early Monday due to the solar eclipse.
“When we were making the decision (of what to do for Wednesday), we were doing it with the best information that we had at the time. We were working with local and parish officials and so at that time, when we made the decision to keep our schools open, it was with that information in mind,” said Kaela Lewis, the Communications Director of Jefferson Parish Public Schools.
It wasn’t immediately clear where they were getting that information because WWL-TV Chief Meteorologist Chris Franklin was saying at 5 pm on Monday, more than 36 hours in advance of the start of the Wednesday school day that the storms were expected to start in the morning and possibly be out of the area by early afternoon in the 2 to 3 p.m. time frame.
Meanwhile Orleans Parish schools said that they were working "In accordance with weather updates from the National Weather Service, NOLA Public Schools initially determined that severe weather would not pose a risk in the morning but could become problematic later in the day.”
However, while the National Weather Service did say early Monday that the timing could have storms hitting in the afternoon Wednesday, but by midday Tuesday, they issued a time frame saying that the storms would be in the area around 8 in the morning and lasting until early afternoon.
A short time later, Orleans Parish still issued an advisory about cancelling after school activities and not anything earlier in the school day.
Around 3 p.m., most of the school systems in southeast Louisiana started announcing they would be closed Wednesday.
Asked again Thursday, a spokesperson for Orleans schools said that unless there is a State of Emergency, the decision to close is left up to individual schools, several of whom elected to not open Wednesday.
Dominque Barr's 13 and 11-year-olds attend Andrew Wilson Charter School in New Orleans. Barr told WWL Louisiana, "Once I got all the tornado warnings on my phone around 10 a.m. until noon, I began to get worried."
She says if students miss too many days, they risk having to attend summer school, so she sent them because school wasn't cancelled.
Sandra Hauer with the Jefferson Federation of Teachers said, "Yet Monday, we're dismissed for a solar eclipse." She went on to say, "The end result was flooded streets, students unable to leave the school sites, parents unable to reach their children, employees unable to tend to their own families, and then they had students stranded at schools waiting for them to pick them up."
Hauer says school was canceled for the eclipse but not for a weather emergency. "My biggest fear is that next time people will take a sick day or not report to work, and then who's going to be at school for the students."
Parents put a big deal of trust in teachers, Hauer said, "I had teachers calling, "I have to go move my car, my car is flooding where do I put it?" She says but when their safety is also put at risk, "They deserve the best because they give our students the best."
Teachers and parents alike are asking who's looking out for our kids. "You're not expecting your child to be fighting through water, and anything could've been in that water—gators, snakes—it was very dangerous," said Barr.