The Teachers’ Union is digging into what went wrong in the Corner Brook area yesterday after some students and staff were stranded for a time in schools due to treacherous weather conditions.

Intense snow squalls, with little let-up, resulted in heavy snow and high winds with whiteout conditions and slippery roads in Corner Brook.

Parents say the decision to close the schools should have happened much earlier, but NLSchools says the situation was unanticipated.

NLTA President Trent Langdon, whose office fielded a significant number of messages and complaints from members, says the weather forecast was well known.

“The incident needs to be investigated,” says Langdon, who says hundreds of families were left “unnerved—at best” by the uncertainty. Langdon says the incident had the potential to stretch into the evening hours and a second day, and decisions related to school closures need to err on the side of caution, rather than put children at risk.