EMSB to close for eclipse
The EMSB has decided to close on April 8, cancelling a ped day in March and moving it to the day of the solar eclipse, which will be happening around the time kids usually get out of school.
Adding Plateau Astro’s Youtube video on the eclipse.
Joey 16:39 on 2024-02-14 Permalink
That’s cool. Presumably we’ll have a snowstorm that day.
Kate 17:18 on 2024-02-14 Permalink
Or, if it’s like last year, an ice storm.
Tim S. 19:03 on 2024-02-14 Permalink
So if I read between the lines of the explanation right, the EMSB is concerned that students will look directly at the sun from the school grounds, and they’ll be sued? This seems like risk aversion of the most extreme level.
Kate 19:27 on 2024-02-14 Permalink
Maybe the teachers are concerned there’s no way they can control the behaviour of all the kids in their care, so they’d rather leave it to families to do so? I suppose it could be seen as an insurance issue, but I would not want to be the person tasked with stopping 30 children from looking up at the sky.
Nicholas 21:23 on 2024-02-14 Permalink
I was in a PSBGM elementary school during the 1994 solar eclipse and our science teacher was going to hold a viewing. He was very knowledgeable, and showed us how to create a pinhole camera, which I did. They also let our parents sign permission slips so we could stay about an hour later so we could see it all. Well, day of, it was suddenly cancelled, for legal reasons, and we would have to stay inside with blinds drawn, and could not leave at our normal time even if we wanted to, because the slips were signed. So I snuck into a staff room to use the phone to call home to get them to call the office and let me leave. And so a small group gathered in the playground at the end of class to use the various gadgets to see (the imprint of) the eclipse. I have little doubt legal reasons are the reason, but at least they’re deciding so in advance.
McGill is holding a viewing event with free glasses available day of (while supplies last).
Kate 22:32 on 2024-02-14 Permalink
That’s a good story, Nicholas. What were they thinking, staying inside with blinds drawn! Reminds me of “All Summer in a Day”.
I already have a pair of eclipse glasses from the astronomy store, even though the odds are we don’t see anything but a darkened cloudy sky.
jeather 00:09 on 2024-02-15 Permalink
I know a lot of parents who planned to just take their kids out early or skip entirely that day, because they wanted to see the eclipse with their children. It seems like a sensible decision, honestly.
MarcG 11:00 on 2024-02-15 Permalink
Eclipses aren’t ever going to go away we need to learn to live with blindness and stop these restrictions.
Tim S. 11:39 on 2024-02-15 Permalink
If parents want to share this occasion with their children, fine. But as someone who was also in high school during the 90s eclipse, to the best of my recollection:
1) the blinds were not closed
2) most people had special sunglasses that were on sale at every dep
3) we looked out the windows for 10 minutes, got bored and went back to our usual classes
4) no one went blind.
Mr.Chinaski 11:41 on 2024-02-15 Permalink
Unfortunately there’s a 70% chance that it’s gonna be cloudy in Montreal. Let’s hope for the best, or that there will be an open sky 1-2hours from Montreal (near Sherbrooke)
https://eclipsophile.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2024TSE-CentreCloud-graph-hires-VT-NB-sm.png
Joey 14:07 on 2024-02-15 Permalink
Did Donald Trump not prove that looking at the sun in an eclipse is totally fine?
Kate 14:09 on 2024-02-15 Permalink
That’s how he gets his incomparable skin tone.
Ian 19:30 on 2024-02-15 Permalink
And here I thought it was from getting blasted by farts from all the dictators of the world whose butts he has his nose up.