vbb - must be. That's the only way I can read it...

"should not be no school period"....so you are saying there should be school?

when there is weather like this there should not be no school period.

"The meal that they have Friday at lunch frequently is the last meal they will have until they come to breakfast on Monday," she said. "You take all those things under consideration, and you offer a safe place for the kids to be."

I'm sorry but this is fail. If this is in fact true then I think roughly 60 hours without food is cause for the authorities to step in.

The real culprit here is the liberal ideology apparently held by some in the administration that the school is the guardian of the children and the safety of all the kids should be put at risk so a few can have a last meal on Friday at lunch. WTF is wrong with you people. If VISD had left it alone and said the conditions didn't warrant it, and luckily by dismissal at the end of the day they certainly did not warrant a cancellation or early dismissal, I would have said fine, they got it right. But to throw in the bleeding heart starving kids remark as a final justification just loses me. It's a school people.

And to add to that those that believe these are all our kids to be responsible for, is just ludicrous. The school IS responsible for the safety and well being of the kids from the time they get on the bus till the time they get off. After that it's in the parents hands. You can't be all things to these children. If there is a problem the authorities should be called. But you can't risk the safety of thousands of children so that a few can have a last meal on Friday.

If this is such a factual statement by VISD, lets see the numbers of those that go hungry all weekend. Let's do something about it as a community. But the schools are apparently over burdened as it is with just trying to educate.

If it is truly the case that these children are better off at school than at home, then I guess its time for 24 hour school. Start picking kids up and dropping them at school and they can't leave because the "community" decided we could keep a better eye on them and feed them at school than anyone else could. Or how about school from 8 till 5. Everyone should love that. Forget the teachers they're overpaid anyway right? I mean really. What is school but government daycare anyway? That's what it comes down to. Whether the parent(s) work, or stay home on their fat asses everyone wants to get the kids out of the house and who wants to have to go pick them up at noon when the school could just watch them for me.

BTW the entire last paragraph is written in sarcasm for those of you that may have attended a VISD school.

Allow me to reiterate. The school district got it right, but for the wrong reason in my opinion. I think they got a little lucky too.

Notamorningperson- you said
"Keep the little ones in school where they belong, in a safe, warm environment instead of sending them home and wasting a day of education."

They BELONG with parents if conditions are bad or predicted to be bad. The school is not a baby sitter, maybe that is the problem with the public education system in Texas and in Victoria. They are suppose to teach and nothing else.
Are you saying that your child doesn't have a "safe and warm enviroment" at home? If so maybe the problem lies with you.
Why do people keep complaining instead of taking responsiblity for their actions? You (parents) decided to have children when you couldn't afford them, you decided to be a single parent by having sex unprotected. Why does this all of the sudden fall on the schools?
Respect yourself enough to not lay down with every Tom, Dick and Harry and be an ADULT when you decided to have children and make sure you have the means to give them the support and love they need.
Relying on the school to watch your children while at work is horrible, be a parent.

Kudos to VISD. When school let out today, the roads were wet, not frozen, and the snow was gone - at least in my part of town. Keep the little ones in school where they belong, in a safe, warm environment instead of sending them home and wasting a day of education.

PatientEarth, it IS a sad situation that we have to keep the schools open so the kiddos can eat. When I was growing up, I was one of the stats that SugarMagnolia was referring to. When I was in the third through sixth grades, I do not remember having a meal outside of school. I would go back to school starving and ask for seconds. It would break the lunch lady's heart to tell me seconds were not allowed. I honestly do not remember eating at home. I am left to wonder how I ate over the summer breaks. I was so starved, that I only grew approximately one inch between second and sixth grades. I was still wearing the same clothes throughout that time period. Some families are just down on their luck. Other families are oblivious to the fact that they have kids, which was my situation.

The way to change the situation begins with you. If you see a need, what can you do to provide for that need? VISD did that today by putting the nutritional needs of the children first.

There are a lot of single parents, and even two parent families out there that would have been put in a further bind if they had to leave work because snow fell and did not stick. I work with many of them who are worried about running their heaters too much and dreading the upcoming electric bill or worried about putting a nutritious meal on the table. Sometimes the bigger concern is do I pay rent, feed my kids, or put gas in the car so I can earn a paycheck tomorrow to cover the before-mentioned items. Unfortunately, it is a harsh reality and if VISD helped them in any way by keeping the doors open, then their decision will be honored. There are things all of us can do to help lighten the load of those who are struggling. As someone who grew up looking at those realities in the eye, I for one do something about it. Sometimes the smallest thing that you do could mean something major for the recipient.

It is indeed a sad situation, PatientEarth, but a reality for many schools. Even when I was in elementary, I remember so many of the students arriving early so that they could have their free breakfast in the cafeteria. I remember asking mother why I only ate lunch and not breakfast at school, and she said that we could afford to have breakfast at home before school, and I could also afford to take my lunch every day, and not everybody was as lucky as we were. We were not rich by any means, but I understood what she said, and began to realize how fortunate we were. I thought those other kids were the lucky ones, because they got to "eat out" for breakfast, but once I understood it was because they HAD to, that there was little food at home, I knew I was the lucky one.

I keep tabs on my little elementary and junior high schools I went to in Houston, and they release statistics in the Houston Chronicle every so often about the demographic/ethnic makeup of students, percent living under the poverty level, and percentages of free breakfasts and lunches. The numbers are astounding. As heartbreaking as they may have been when I was going to school, they are even more so today. An astonishing 90% of students who now attend my elementary (the second one I went to from grades 3-6) are living in poverty and are on the free breakfast/lunch program. I will say that again - 90%!!!! It is a magnet school in a poor section of town, true, it always was, and when I went, my little white self was a minority, and would be even more so now, but still the numbers are unbelievable to me. It is a fine school, and bless the teachers there for doing their jobs under such depressing circumstances, but HOW on Earth can we change this?

It largely depends on the location of the school, at least in Houston, and I would think to a lesser degree in Victoria, but how did we get to this point? Why do people have children that they cannot afford? Thank goodness for the free/reduced lunch program. If it weren't for the school providing nutritious meals, so many children would have none. They would literally go hungry, and many do during the summer. I have no answers to this dilemma, but in a country of plenty, I just don't understand how this situation got so bad. It is really sad.