Parents on the west coast of the province have been left frustrated and confused after schools were allowed to stay open as strong snow squalls bare down on the area.

Parent Angela Brockway of Corner Brook says her two high schoolers are home safe and sound, but she’s hearing that there are students stuck at school at this hour because the roads are too treacherous to send out the buses.

Brockway says students went to school in reasonable weather this morning.

Conditions deteriorated throughout the day, yet, she says the schools never closed.

In fact, she says they received an email stating that schools would be staying open later for kids who couldn’t get home.

Brockway believes a lot of the students still in school are from communities just outside Corner Brook, where highway travel would be needed to get home.

“I really don’t know how buses are going to run in this weather,” states Brockway, who says it leaves people in a real predicament.

She believes the situation is “completely unnecessary” and the school board needs to be held accountable.

She says if the decision was made to close schools earlier parents could have made arrangements, but they didn’t and it has resulted in a bad situation.

NLSchools Responds

The Department of Education says the heavy snow squalls that came over Corner Brook this afternoon caught them off guard.

The decision whether or not to close schools lies with a group at NLSchools who keep a close eye on the forecast, but weather conditions can change.

Taking safety into consideration, the decision was made to keep students and staff at the school until conditions improved enough to allow busses to resume operations.

All students who were not picked up by parents were able to get the bus home.