Parents Seethe: Call FCPS Decision to Hold School 'Epic Fail'

Should Fairfax County Public Schools have delayed or closed schools due to snow on Tuesday instead of operating “as usual”?

With unplowed streets, parents said the decision made no sense. School officials took to the airwaves, on WTOP, to explain they had to make a decision at 3 a.m., before the snow began to fall.

The school system apologized but parents around the area blew off some steam about the decision.

Here’s some of their comments posted Tuesday on Patch Facebook pages:

• Lisa: “My daughter’s bus was 20 mins late, then spent 30 more minutes pulled over in our neighborhood while the bus driver put chains on tires. Poor judgement, FCPS.”
• Seema: “Bad call fairfax county- if the kids fall sick due to your negligence they will miss more than a few hours of school. School bus was not delayed - it was a no show - kids waited an hour at the stop and then parents had to chauffeur them to school in a slow traffic jam! Wonder why fairfax county schools refrained from executing 2 hour delay when it was known that there will b snow and weather will be super cold???”
• GoHareSadaf: “Bad Call FCPS.”
• Tana: “Fail.”
• M Elissa: “Horrible call!!! Complete fail! I chose to keep my kids home. I have friends who waited for their bus and it never showed!!!”
• Sarah: “Completely wrong call.”
• Holly Anne: “Wrong call. If they were unsure, they should delayed and bought 2 more hours to make the call and then it would have been clear that they should close.”
• Isabella: “There is metro bus, a school bus and many cars stuck in the Dunn Loring area. A 2-hour delay would have prevented a lot of this mess. Very poor decision by FCPS.”
• Angela: “Was there a ton of snow?! No, but the roads in my neighborhood had NOT been treated. Thankfully, my children are in walking distance to their school. I would be very upset if they had to ride or wait for a “delayed” school bus, as the county put it. IMO, that was a bad call Fairfax!”
• Dee: “Terrible decision!”
• Ashlie: “Terrible decision!!!!”
• Jeff: “This will be ugly.”
• Shana: “Epic fail.”