In wintertime, one of the main things students look forward to is snow days. Who doesn’t yearn for a 5am pre-recorded message telling us there is no school? Any day off from school is celebrated, but an unplanned break in the middle of the week is even better. This year, snow days have been almost nonexistent since winter storms have not hit our town hard enough to warrant multiple days off.

Michigan is known for the tremendous amount of snow that falls over our state every year. Usually, schools have no problem using up the days set aside for emergency weather conditions. But, as it stands, Stockbridge has only used one of the snow days built into the schedule of our school year. This built-in schedule adds six additional school days onto our calendar, marking 186 days of instruction instead of the required 180.

The issue of unused snow days has never come up before, but with the end of the school year approaching and five snow days left, we will have an entire 30 hours of unnecessary instruction added to our school year.

If the alternative to not using snow days is going to school for no reason, why are we not using the snow days? This January, when a snowstorm hit the entire mid-Michigan region, our school only had one snow day when nearby schools had two or three, including our neighboring school, Chelsea. 

This resulted in students driving in unsafe conditions.

Snow days are being held onto tightly, but what does this mean for the safety of our students? The day after our only snow day, multiple reports from students said that they almost got into car accidents, while some actually did.

Students shouldn’t be at risk when driving to school, especially when we have extra days that can be used. Snow days are used to protect student safety. Not using them on days when the roads are bad is reckless and pointless.

While it does make sense to be prudent when calling snow days during the start of winter season since no one can forecast how much snow we will actually receive, as we are nearing the end of winter season, we have snow days to spare, and sending kids to school when they could stay home and safe just seems irresponsible.

Snow days are important and necessary; not just a ruse to stay home from school. Michigan snow storms are no joke and kids having to walk to school and wait for the bus in the cold is extremely dangerous, as are the driving conditions that bus drivers and newly licensed teenagers are expected to drive in.

It seems as if snow days are being hoarded for when we might need one, but when the roads actually are a threat, more likely than not, schools remain open.