As a disseminator of information, my hardest task sometimes is to convince people that what “used to be” and what “is” are not the same thing.
And let’s be clear – that fact is true of anyone who is in the business of distributing news and information, not just me.
One of the most common questions asked on snowy and foggy days is, “since school is canceled, there is no game tonight, right?”
The genesis of that question is that there was a time not that long ago when many schools had a “no school/no extra curricular activities” policy. And that makes so much sense. If the weather is too bad for kids to go to school, there is no reason to have anyone out at night driving to a game either, right?
And most schools followed that way of thinking until about 15 years ago.
For Warsaw, I remember a day when dense fog had set in on a mid-January Thursday morning. The Lady Tigers were scheduled to play a road game that night, but a two-hour delay gave way to school being closed for the entire day. The state tournament was only two weeks away, and it was going to be tough to shoehorn the game in before the end of the regular season.
Fog is a funny weather phenomenon. Early-morning fog almost always clears off by 10 a.m., and that is exactly what happened that day. Just after 10 a.m., the skies cleared and it was a beautiful, 42-degree day.
But there was no school, so there was no game.
And everyone realized that it was time to rethink that plan.
Some schools still follow it, and I am not in any way criticizing those schools. We can certainly politely agree to disagree on how to handle these situations, and each school has to set their own policy and then follow it and live with it.
The benefit of doing it that way is there is no debate on what happens when school is closed. There is no discussion. There is no contemplation or wondering. No communication is required. It’s done.
But the counterpoint to that is what happens if the conditions that existed causing school to be closed don’t exist at the time when a visiting team would have to board a bus and fans from both sides would have to begin to travel to the game site?
Yes, that takes thought. It takes communication. But it’s never been easier to create a communications network between schools, between athletic departments and their coaches and game workers, between coaches and their players and support staff, and between the local media and the public.
When it comes down to it, athletic directors understand the ramifications if they get that decision wrong and someone gets hurt, or worse. They can’t make a mistake.
I have not met one who I shuddered to think of making that decision.
But it does raise a different issue that I want address in the space I have left.
You may or may not like the athletic director at your school. You may or may not like the principal of your school. You may not like the superintendent of your school corporation. But those people are charged with making those decisions, and you should respect them for that.
It’s not like superintendents answer the alarm at 5:30 each morning, look out their window, see a lack of snow or fog and decide there won’t be a delay that day. They each have their own ways of collecting information through the media and people scattered throughout their district to help them make a call.
Social media is very helpful when spreading the word on the status of school, but it can also bring the worst of people to the surface.
When a school calls for a two-hour delay for slick roads, how many of you look out your window and see a clear road and think “what are they talking about?” Just because it’s foggy or not foggy where you live is only a small piece of the picture that school officials have to look at. What is the likelihood of bad roads or fog later, two hours from now when that “go/no go” time comes up again?
Truth is, I’d be willing to bet 90 percent of the people who complain on social media about the decision to have school or not have school, or have games or not have games, are not decision-makers themselves or part of a decision-making body. Why do I think that? Because people who are tasked with making those hard decisions in businesses, churches or organizations are the only ones who truly understand how hard that position is to be in, and they are very, very hesitant to criticize it because they’ve been there, and they know.
Yes, I am in favor of waiting until noon or 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. to make a final decision on games for that night. Common sense is a good thing and it’s something we should teach our children and grandchildren, and it’s required in making these kinds of decisions.
And I also will gladly live with whatever that call is … because I have had to make hard decisions on behalf of others, and I appreciate the burden.
