This winter was speculated to be one with record snow falls and (hopefully) lots of snow days. So far in 2015, it has been nothing but the opposite. Looking for days off of school, students have used any type of precipitation as an excuse to cancel. January was full of potential snow days, but we have had nothing but delays. In Fairfax county, however, the schools have gotten multiple snow days. Perhaps it is the fact that we have had no snow days, or maybe that Fairfax has had days off when we haven’t, but Arlington students are annoyed.
On January 5 the snow started to fall promptly at 5 a.m., right after the county checked for inclement weather, and saw that there was no problem. Continuing to fall until about noon, the roads were covered. Children ages 5 to 18 were stranded at bus stops for up to an hour and a half, as parents had left early to try and beat rush hour in the snow. The buses that did come, picked up students extremely late and some even got stuck, making the traffic even worse. With no cancellation of school, students aimed to get to school on time, making Yorktown Boulevard a danger zone. There was stand still traffic, with high school students behind the wheel and multiple students went home with dents in their cars.. Clearly, the refrain from cancellation or even a delay was an extreme mishap on the county.
In light of all of these almost snow days, students have logged onto twitter and published their distaste in the county’s decisions. Multiple students have even tweeted at the school system directly. On the January 26, when Fairfax students got the day off, the county’s twitter account tweeted a “friendly reminder” for students to be “respectful” and threatened to remove those who are not. They also mentioned that their school and technology policies still apply in the “twitter verse.”
Gaining county attention this tweet sparked a mass amount of hilarity among students and even some spectators. An article was written on Arlnow.com titled, “APS to Students: Stop Being Mean to Us on Twitter.” Now the question we can ask is, when is a tweet too far? Are students enrolled in the Arlington County school system supposed to follow the APS technology policies on personal accounts? This article even went on to show the tweets that students put out, but blurring out the pictures of the users. Carolina Martyn, a senior at Yorktown, was one of the students highlighted in the article.
“I think the county’s threats of blocking students on Twitter who tweet mean things is a pretty empty threat, since I didn’t follow them before, and I don’t really care if they block me” explained Martyn.
In regards to technology policies Principal Dr. Raymond Pasi believes that respect is the first place to start.
“The way you earn respect is to give it. I think you can make the point and be respectful. When you are disrespectful, what becomes the focus is the lack of respect and the point is lost” explained Pasi.
The policies throughout the county include, “Be courteous and use appropriate language. Do not harass or attack others, or use expressions of or engage in, discrimination, retaliation, bigotry, racism, and or hate.”
The county policies apply to anyone and everyone who tweets at the Arlington County Public School’s twitter account, and this should be taken into consideration when students put out public distaste in the counties decisions.
