When 12-year-old Emily Beckman’s teacher asked her to name the “the greatest invention ever created by humans,” she replied: “Snow days.”
So when she learned that her Colorado school district had changed its weather cancellation policy to transform some snow days into virtual learning days, she decided to fight back.
“You get to sleep in till, like, 10 a.m. if you’re that tired, and you get to read books and cuddle with your pets, go outside sledding [and have] snowball fights,” the Grade 6 student from Colorado Springs told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal.
“And when you come back in, you get hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream.”
Emily’s online petition asking Academy School District 20 (D20) to re-instate “traditional” snow days in full has garnered more than 3,000 signatures in the last two weeks.
D20 did not respond to a CBC request for comment, but a spokesperson newspaper that the district is “committed to regularly reviewing feedback and adapting to meet the needs of our students, staff, and community.”
A pandemic switch to online learning
The shift to online classes during hazardous weather conditions is not unique to Emily’s school district.
school news magazine in the U.S., 39 per cent of the nation’s school districts ditched weather cancellations for e-learning in 2020, when pandemic lockdowns meant online classes were the norm.
have adopted similar policies, though it varies by province and district.
Ontario, Alberta, and Manitoba all leave it up to school boards to determine their own policies. Several in Ontario have dropped snow days for virtual learning, including in and London , Torronto . In January, when a storm hit southern Alberta
Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and Nunavut, meanwhile, say they continue to cancel all classes when the weather calls for it. And when a storm hit P.E.I. in February, Most school are closed .
She’s hopeful she can convince the district to reconsider its policy, though she admits they might not bend as easily as Grade 3 boys.
“We, like, won’t be sore losers and we’ll just, I don’t know, maybe try again in a few years and just try to make the best out of regular e-learning days,” she said.
