Every kid's dream cut short

Do you remember the rumors at school that declared if the power is out for more than two hours, you get to go home? And do you remember how every power outage would last approximately one hour, 55 minutes; just when you were so excited about the prospects of going home early, your hopes were dashed by the return of the lights?

Yesterday I pulled up to school to find the principal and crossing guards still out in the parking lot, and kids still trickling in. I thought that was odd as I normally time my arrivals and departures so that I miss the student traffic. As it turned out, when the school opened, the power was out. The power company was forecasting it would be out for another 2-3 hours, returning at 11:00: 25 minutes before school let out (it was a minimum day). They decided then that they would send all the kids being dropped off by parents back home, and let the kids who had walked stay at school. Don't ask me the reasoning of half-opening the school. The power then returned at 8:15 or so, and they had to try to reign everyone back in with the use of the auto-dialer. All told, only about half of the kids returned to school. Half the school absent: that was a whole ton of money they lost that day, not to mention a valuable day of teaching. Every teacher said they were going to have to re-teach anything they went over, since half their kids were absent. The school felt like a ghost town, and I do not envy the person who made the decision to turn kids away, as I imagine they're going to have to answer to someone about that.

My diabetic was one of the ones that was returned to school, and she summed up her feelings when her mom answered the call about the return of power like any eight year old would: "I screamed."

Also, I saw the headlines of the local paper today describing two unrelated shootings, both not all that far from my schools. One was in broad daylight. Great.