For any student that has ever called themselves a part of Winston-Salem Forsyth/County Schools you are aware that our system is very quick to call off school for even the slightest of flurries or freezing rain.

   So why then, on December 8th,  as the snow began falling around 7:45 AM as Career Center students pulled into the lot and started to stick around 2:15 PM, did WS/FCS not dismiss high schools until approximately 3:20 PM?

   Growing up living only ten minutes from my elementary school it was always an eye rolling moment when, as the first flake fell, school was called off. Yet as I progressed into going 30 minutes away and riding a bus to and from middle school every day, my awareness was heightened.

   Fast forward to high school, driving myself to and from school everyday with a license I have had for less than a year, even a mere raindrop can seem intimidating. As roads get slick with water, the risk of hydroplaning on my way home is forever evident yet until last week I had never had to drive in snow before.

   Yes, Northerners I said it. We cannot drive in the snow and yes, we get it, you think you live in an igloo.

   The problem with snow in the south is that we are both uninformed on how to drive in the conditions and also that we do not set a budget big enough for the necessary precautions and solutions. It is truly a cycle that will likely never end as realistically, no one wants to do anything about it.

   Snow is beautiful thing, especially during the Christmas season in an area that does not frequently see it. Great fun is had by going outside and building snowmen, having snowball fights, all to come in to hot chocolate and a fire.

   That being said, there should be no reason that high schoolers should ever have to fear the snow. Yet when we are expected, especially as a magnet school drawing students from all over the county, to drive home in it as temperatures are dropping and havoc is ensuing, fear is expected. Driving home, from Winston-Salem to Walkertown, a normally 30 minute trek took almost two hours that day and was full of sliding, sitting in standstill traffic and observing cars stranded on the side of the road beside two WS/FCS high schools, a truly disheartening sight.

    The blame for this incident cannot nor should be placed on one person or one department and while the two hour delay the following day was very appreciated, families undoubtedly will be expecting an earlier and wiser decision from the school system and personally I would just like to get home when I can still see my driveway.