# Local school board cancels school because of an eclipse
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [January 27, 2024, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738 "2024-01-27T16:29:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/1 "2024-01-27T16:29:37Z")
Well, sort of. My local school board has decided the total solar eclipse of April 8 will be dangerous. So a PA day has been moved from April 22 to April 8 so the kids aren’t subjected to all the danger.
The period of darkness will be four and a half minutes long.
Feel free to discuss, for I can’t fathom this.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/2 "2024-01-27T16:31:27Z")
Are you sure this is about danger? Surely, if it were, the kids would be in just as much danger out of school as in.
It seems much more likely, to me, that it’s for the same reason most other districts are canceling school: To allow students to spend the time observing the eclipse.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/3 "2024-01-27T16:45:04Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> To allow students to spend the time observing the eclipse.
At home without adult supervision. (I assume they’ll be at work)
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### Author:  [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/4 "2024-01-27T16:58:53Z")
It’s perfectly safe. I have it on good authority (leader of the free world) that you can just squint at it without eye protection.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/5 "2024-01-27T17:02:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> It seems much more likely, to me, that it’s for the same reason most other districts are canceling school: To allow students to spend the time observing the eclipse.
This would kind of be my suspicion, too: if the local area is under the path of totality (or close to it), they probably anticipate mass absences (of both students and faculty) to be occurring anyway.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/6 "2024-01-27T17:06:30Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> At home without adult supervision
They’re shifting a teacher inservice day for it so the parents would have had to make alternate plans anyway. And it’s in April so there’s around 9 weeks notice to organize something. Seems reasonable enough to me
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/7 "2024-01-27T17:15:55Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Are you sure this is about danger? Surely, if it were, the kids would be in just as much danger out of school as in.
But now the parents can’t sue the district for their kids going blind.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/8 "2024-01-27T17:51:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Are you sure this is about danger? Surely, if it were, the kids would be in just as much danger out of school as in.
They have specifically stated it’s the danger of the darkness.
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/9 "2024-01-27T17:56:35Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#):
>
> But now the parents can’t sue the district for their kids going blind.
First thought that entered _my_ mind.
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### Author:  [@J-P\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J-P_L)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/10 "2024-01-27T17:56:49Z")
If this is about the school board in the Ottawa, Ontario area, then yes, it is about the danger to the eye sight of the kids that will be walking home at the time that the eclipse is expected to happen, that was mentioned on the local news.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/11 "2024-01-27T17:56:57Z")
No one else has access to their exact statements so no one can make a truly informed comment but I suspect the genesis of the “danger” is the risk of looking at the sun during the event and the school not wanting to be responsible for shepherding a thousand kids away from the windows for a rare event. Not the danger from being plunged into darkness itself.
Edit because this was posted while I was posting…
> [@J-P\_L](#):
>
> kids that will be walking home at the time that the eclipse is expected to happen
This is a legitimate concern.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/12 "2024-01-27T18:01:15Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> > [@Chronos](#):
> >
> > Are you sure this is about danger? Surely, if it were, the kids would be in just as much danger out of school as in.
>
> They have specifically stated it’s the danger of the darkness.
Vampires? Brownies?
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/13 "2024-01-27T18:08:19Z")
How often do people lose their eyesight because of an eclipse? I mean, I’ve never actually in my entire life heard of this happening to someone.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/14 "2024-01-27T18:13:59Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> How often do people lose their eyesight because of an eclipse?
As noted in this article: eye damage is rare, but there are documented cases of it. That said, it doesn’t usually lead to blindness, but vision damage.
> [@](#):
>
> Though it sounds like an old wives’ tale, there are more than 100 documented cases of serious and permanent eye damage that was due to people staring too long at a [solar eclipse](https://www.livescience.com/32671-whats-a-solar-eclipse.html), said B. Ralph Chou, a professor emeritus of optometry at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. However, this type of damage, called solar retinopathy, will not typically make a person completely blind, he said.
>
> “You end up possibly getting enough damage that you can no longer see things that are really, really fine in detail,” Chou told Live Science.
The article also notes that there isn’t much research out there assessing just how common such eye damage is. I suspect that, at least in developed countries, it isn’t common, as there are so many warnings issued about not looking directly at an eclipse.
> **[Has Anyone Ever Gone Blind from Staring at a Solar Eclipse?](https://www.livescience.com/59663-how-solar-eclipses-make-people-go-blind.html)**
>
> Staring at the sun is bad for peoples' eyes and can cause permanent injury, even during a solar eclipse.
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### Author:  [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/15 "2024-01-27T18:15:06Z")
If the eclipse is expected to draw heavy traffic from people looking for a good place to watch it, that might be a sensible response.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/16 "2024-01-27T18:33:36Z")
I guess that, since all they’re doing is shuffling a day off the kids were going to get anyway, I don’t see any reason to be upset by them doing this out of caution regardless of how severe the risk is. The risk on that day is likely more than the original day off the kids were going to get so the caution here isn’t harming anything.
Also, it seems obvious to say, but there’s a spectrum of eye damage between “hunky dory” and “stricken completely sightless”.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/17 "2024-01-27T20:06:38Z")
Maybe this is so the teachers get to watch? If so, good for the board.
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### Author:  [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/18 "2024-01-27T21:39:59Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> How often do people lose their eyesight because of an eclipse? I mean, I’ve never actually in my entire life heard of this happening to someone.
This is the SDMB 🙂 There is a post somewhere here from someone who permanently damaged their eyesight by looking at an eclipse.
Most people get “snow blindness” by looking at the sun (Isaac Newton). Some of those have more damage: [Eclipse burns: a prospective study of solar retinopathy following the 1999 solar eclipse - The Lancet](https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140673600035972.pdf)
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2024, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/19 "2024-01-28T02:19:23Z")
I wonder if they will do it for any future…
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2024, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-school-board-cancels-school-because-of-an-eclipse/996738/20 "2024-01-28T02:38:45Z")
Yep, that’s my thought too. I’m taking two days off work so I can make the seven hour drive with my kids to be in the path of totality. The 2017 eclipse blew my freaking mind, but my youngest was too young to appreciate it, and I want to give that to her, plus I don’t know if I’ll get to see another.
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