Should Florida Schools Implement “Flood Days”?
In many northern U.S. states, such as Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, school districts have what are called snow days. These snow days are unscheduled holidays when school is cancelled because of heavy snowfall. These days have become so common that the people living in those areas expect them to happen, making them days that are celebrated by some through events like sledding, snowball fights, or making snow sculptures.
Here in Florida, we have a similar weather experience that residents expect yearly: heavy rain. Florida is known as the Sunshine State, and as a result of all this sunshine, rain is bound to come. However, unlike the snow days in northern states, this rain doesn’t bring fun activities. All it brings are more obstacles residents have to face in order to complete their daily lives.
As a long-running issue here in Florida, heavy rain often brings flash floods, which flood the streets, turning them into lakes.
The most recent and prevailing example is in Palm Beach County, where 15 to 20 inches of rain has fallen, which nears Florida’s single-day rainfall record. These floods, along with floods from nearby counties like Broward, completely submerged cars with knee-length bodies of water across entire streets.
A devastating and tragic example of this surfaced when footage showed a little boy getting off the bus from school. While walking home, the water was up to his chest as he trudged through the sea of water.
“I’m surprised they let him off the bus with water that deep, let alone that his parents let him go to school that day. It wouldn’t be surprising if he got sick after that,” said junior Akish Dieudonne.
With this great concern, many residents of Florida are demanding a change. This is not the first time Florida has experienced flooding, with Florida averaging about 112 floods and flash floods in total since 2000.
A huge problem with these floods, besides the negative impacts they bring, is the fact that students are still going to school throughout these natural disasters, which doesn’t make sense to a lot of people.
“Schools need to care more about the safety of their students rather than their attendance. Most kids only have one form of transportation, and many of them like me walk. When floods are basically reaching 5 feet, these transportation options can be messed up. A lot of my friends had their vehicles messed up because of these floods,” said sophomore at Miramar High School, Stedrick Neasman.
The reason why schools cancel up north when there is heavy snow is because of the safety and health hazards of sending kids to school during the extreme weather. Just to name a few, heavy snowfall can reduce tire traction on roads, cause mechanical failures on buses, and put students at risk of frostbite when the temperatures are extremely low.
With all of these hazards, the same can be said for flooding. As seen in Palm Beach and Broward County, flooding can completely submerge vehicles, and if they don’t, the high levels of water can cause waterlogging in the cars, possibly causing many accidents. As for the students who walk, they would be forced to walk through these large bodies of water. This will soak their clothes, which is another health risk in itself.
The main reason why schools refuse to cancel in Florida in these conditions is because of the Florida Mandate that requires at least 180 school days per year. However, to reach this number, schools could add “flood days”, similar to how “hurricane days” are already implemented into the calendar. This way, if floods were to occur and the schools must be cancelled, it won’t throw them off track for the 180-day number that they have to reach.
This is the same thing the Northern states do. They, too, build in 3-5 “snow days” into their calendars to handle their regional severe weather.
As climate change continues to be an ongoing issue, the intensity of rain and floods is expected to rise, which poses a risk to everybody in the state. And while attendance is vital to a student’s success, their health is even more important. With this in mind, schools statewide should consider the possibility of accommodating these natural disasters in order to protect everybody they hope to educate.
