Another casualty of 2020: The magic of the snow day

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Even before the first flakes fell, New York City’s first big snowfall of the season was doomed to be a gloomy disappointment for more than a million of its schoolchildren.

COVID-19 has robbed a lot from children in 2020, and in many school districts in northern climes it is now stealing the magic of the snow day — waking up to find that school has been canceled and the day will be filled with snowballs and snow angels.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made it clear as the city began preparing for up to a foot of snow by Thursday that students there — including ones still attending classes in person — will be expected to log in and work as usual.

Kids have lost too much instruction time already, he said, though he admitted to mixed feelings.

“As a parent — and I was a kid once myself — I have to say I feel a little sad that the snow day we used to all know may be gone because it’s really not going to be a day off if we have a snow day,” he said.

Not everywhere, though.

In Washington Township, New Jersey, students should keep turning their pajamas inside out, putting spoons under their pillows and flushing ice cubes down the toilet in hopes of swaying the snow gods.

Superintendent Jeffrey Mohre says remote learning or not, he’ll still call snow days.

“Easiest decision I’ve had to make all year,” Mohre said Wednesday from Long Valley, New Jersey, where forecasters were warning of 12 to 20 inches of snow.

It came down to wanting to encourage "the anticipation and the excitement and the wonderment that so many of us experienced as children — and it is those things that make snow days such memorable childhood events,” he said.

“Go build a snowman,” was the instruction from like-minded Superintendent Bondy Shay...