To Whom It May Concern,
I am the parent of two children who attend a Grand Erie District school. One of my children has severe disabilities and medical concerns that put her life at risk in this kind of weather. I'm writing this email to let you know how disgusting I think it is for you to force small children to attend school in weather such as this.
When you issue a notice acknowledging the severity of the cold temperatures and what it can mean for the health of adults and children, included in that notice should be one that states "For the safety of our students who matter, we are closing schools. Please stay warm and safe", not "Thank you for helping us make sure this is another successful and safe school day".
How safe do you think it was for my daughter, who suffers from a condition called Immersion Hypothermia, to stand for even one minute waiting for her bus this morning? Her condition puts her at risk for seizures, cyanosis, hypothermia, shock, and death. It didn't matter that she was dressed in snow pants, a warm coat, warm gloves, a scarf, boots, and a hat. It didn't matter that I kept her inside my warm vehicle until the bus arrived. The ONE MINUTE it took her to get from my vehicle to the bus doors was enough to turn her cheeks bright red and for her to begin shivering. This is just the first step in the negative effects of her condition.
I am absolutely appalled and disgusted with this school board for this decision. How can you, in your right minds, think that when London and Kitchener cancel their COLLEGE classes because it is too cold for adults to attend school, that it is okay for the "littles", yes CHILDREN, to attend school?
London and Kitchener, and other school boards around Brantford got it right by following the lead of the colleges and closing the schools down for the day due to the temperatures, so how Grand Erie District School Board got it so so wrong, is beyond me.
I hope you'll understand why your schools are so empty today, because at least most parents have the common sense and responsibility to keep their children home and not risk their health and lives. Unfortunately, other parents, like myself, had no choice but to send them off to school in these extreme temperatures, when all we wanted to do was keep them home.
The decision to keep schools open today, while acknowledging that it is too cold to be outside is just absolutely appalling and irresponsible on your part. You would think a school board who claims to care about the wellbeing of its students would follow the lead of other boards and express caution with the safety and health of its students and cancel schools.
If even ONE child is injured in any way health wise today, it is solely your responsibility, and I can only hope that you will use this experience as a lesson learned and protect the safety and wellbeing of your students by cancelling school in the future when it is this cold outside. People DIE in this weather. Is that what you want to risk with your students? Is a "successful and safe school day" really worth the risk of a child losing their life because it's too damn cold to be outside? Forget your agenda's. Take away a day of their summer vacation.
At least the kids won't be at risk of serious health complications in June.
Sincerely,
Brandi Meszaros
Extremely concerned parent in regards to the lack of responsibility in these extreme temperatures and weather circumstances
I just know I won't have time for them. Whereas the cats are more independent as we have a cat flap x
and if we are given any baby gifts I'd prefer neutral in the hope they can be used more than once if we have a boy and a girl. We have gone with a neutral nursery as I was inspired by this pic online.. Our furniture will be no way near as sophisticated (*cough* expensive), we've been looking at cots from IKEA. But I like the colour scheme so we've painted the walls beige with white skirting, and plan on getting white furniture for the room.. with a cute teddy bear mobile and cute beige and white rug from IKEA.
