Miscommunication In Knox County Schools
By Brooke Bradley
Imagine that you wake up expecting a typical school day. You do everything that’s needed to get ready for school, and you walk to your bus stop. It's pouring at the moment, but this is your only mode of transportation, and you don’t want to walk to school because it’s too far. It has been 10 minutes. The bus is late now, so you text your mom, and she finally checks her messages to reveal that your school has a 2-hour delay. You’re soaked now, it’s unpleasant, and you can’t help but imagine what would’ve happened if your mom went to work just a bit earlier or if you didn’t have a phone. Would you be stranded at your bus stop for 2 hours? Well, this was a reality for many students in the Knox County district during the first week of school on Thursday, August 10. The hesitation in making this decision made it hard on not only students and parents, but also people who work for the school system such as bus drivers, teachers, and thousands of other staffers. Not to mention, a simple text that some parents got wasn't even sent to other parents forcing some kids to find out from other kids who found out from their parents. This disorganization could have all been avoided if they just made the decision earlier, especially so early in the school year. I hope this apathy isn’t showing how the year is going to play out.
Why is this a problem? When students, parents, and staff aren’t told about important stuff, such as delays or any other sudden change in the school, it messes up everyone's schedules. Some bus drivers were already on the bus, when most of us got the message, not to mention the teachers having to scramble around and try to change our lesson plans at the last minute. That amount of chaos happening just because of a delayed decision is crazy and if we say “oh well” as a student member, it makes these types of things okay and it happens again. That’s not the only problem though. In addition to the delay that just proves we’re never informed, we also have emergencies that we were never told about, like last Tuesday during the gas leak where so many people thought it was so much worse than it was because students and teachers weren't told anything, and that made fear and rumors to start spreading about what was happening just trying to find out if we’re safe or not! Sure, parents got a call, but it was terrifying for everybody else while they scrambled to try and find out what was happening. The rumors got so exaggerated that many people thought that someone was going to bomb the school, which would never have happened if we had just told them why we were outside. Yes, it may be a safety issue for some people, but most of us just want to know what’s happening and, especially with something as simple as a gas leak, they could’ve sent a mass email.
As students how can we fix this? There’s not much we can do except talk about it. If enough students and teachers express how it upsets them and that it’s not okay to leave us in the dark on the side of the road they have no choice but to listen to us. After all, the district cannot run without us. What the district should do is the following: send mass messages, try to inform us to the best of their ability when in school as an announcement, just talk to us about our needs, make it easier to contact them, and at least make big decisions the night before. Oh, and bring back the phone calls from Carly Harrington! I believe if the district implements these things, we’re not only going to be a happy student body but a much better informed and organized one.