The death of Gabriel Andrews stunned residents in the Bluegrass State’s capital city. The boy was caught in floodwaters early Friday while walking to the bus stop, police said. After an extensive search, his body was found about two hours after police were notified.
Gabriel’s death sparked questions from some who wondered why the Franklin County school district chose not to cancel in-person classes Friday when strong storms produced flash flooding.
I believe the parents have a bigger responsibility for the child’s safety than the school. The school should obviously have shut down, but in the end, the parents are the people who are supposed to keep the child safe, not some strangers. And I don’t care wether the parents had already gone to work. If you live in a place where flash flooding can occour, you know the risk is there after strong storms. If the school is expected to know it was a risk, the parents should damn well know aswell.
Parents have to base their decisions on the available information from trusted sources. One assumes they would consider the school district a trusted source. It’s very possible that they didn’t imagine that the district would actually put their child in danger like this.
While the parents certainly now wish they had ignored the schools decision to hold classes, it’s not really their fault at all that they didn’t.
I don’t think there’s enough information to blame them but there’s also not enough to absolve them completely like that. If they were working you would think they would see how bad the weather and flooding was on their way to work or something and think, hey, maybe Johnny shouldn’t be walking in this?