On 7 Feb 2007 19:40:17 -0800, Weatherlawyer wrote:

I should have thought the best use one could make of such information
as was available to a sophisticated country was to tell parents to
make other plans to look after their children than pretend to assume
the mundane.

Yes, you warn parents that *if* the forecast is correct the schools *may*
be closed. And that a decision will be made in the morning dependant on
*actual* conditions. Round here there is a volunteer "ring around" system
in place once the decision to close the school(s) is made that system is
triggered and within an hour everyone knows.

I suggest that any school that does not have a "call out" system in place
is failing in it's duty of care. How do they quickly close the school
during school hours should they need to, boiler failure, gas leak,
anything not just bad weather. In such an emergency the school secratary
will have much better things to do and worry about than sitting on the
phone trying to contact 100 to 1000 sets of parents.

After some 20 or 30 years of very little snow in this country, I know
if I had children I should like to be at home with them whilst they
sample a singularly important phenomena such as their first snow fall.

It may well be the parents first significant snow fall let alone the
kids. This is half the trouble with the roads, no one under the age of
about 35 will have had the chance to drive on snow and it's not taught as
part of the test.

And getting to work -or not being able to, was determined by sorting it
all out for one's self.

Quite, these days "they" (who ever "they" are?) have to sort out any
problems. People don't think or plan for themselves anymore.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail