Driving to school in icy cold conditions brought fear to students. 

Junior Robbie Ashurst was uncomfortable driving himself and his little sister this morning. 

“I lost traction about 17 to like 2o times,” Ashurst said. “I also had my sister in the car, so it was very scary to me as a brother…If I got into an incident, I would not sleep or even live well knowing my sister got into a car wreck.”

Vehicles do not have enough friction to stay on the road with slick, compacted snow. 

This can be extremely dangerous to new drivers. 

“By the time we got to our cars this morning, around 6 to 7 o’clock, public service was not out to clear the snow,” Ashurst said. “Which made more room for students to get into car crashes.”

Posts were made throughout the day on social media of students who had either gotten stuck or damaged their vehicles. 

At 10:30 a.m., the district cleared most of the snow in the student parking lot. 

By the end of Block 2, about 1,500 students were absent or getting checked out. 

That is nearly 83% of the student body. 

“There’s not a lot of people here right now, so they may as well not have had school today because of attendance,” Ashurst said.

Derby has four snow days that could have been utilized. 

“It’s completely ridiculous that the administration would just have us come to school on this day because it is dangerous,” Ashurst said. “It would just be logical if we had the day off.”