Soapbox: Enterprise High School

This has to do with the tornado at Enterprise High School in Alabama. I am really tired of hearing people say that it is the school's fault. Here is my opinion:

The school did exactly what any other school would do when it kept the students at the school. Every school policy that I have known, the school is more likely to keep students longer than send them home early when severe weather is threatened. This is due to many facts; working parents, transportation, etc. I agree completely with the school in its decision, because, in general, it probably was safer for the students to stay at the school. How were the administration supposed to know that the tornado will come right over their school? They had no possible way to know this. And how could they know that the storm would strike in such a way that would damage the structural integrity of the building? Again, they had no way to foresee this. As I heard one student say, on NPR, he probably would not have heeded the storm warnings if he had been at home. Hence, he was, in principle, safer at school than at home.

It is a tragic event, and I have strongest sympathies for the students that lived through it, for their families and the families of the eight who did not live through it, for the teachers, and for the entire town of Enterprise, Alabama, but the school administration should not be blamed for this catastrophic occurrence. If anyone needs to be blamed, blame the Jet Stream and the particular mixture of elements that made it possible for the violent storms of last week to take place.