While many surrounding schools – Valley Center, Andover, and Goddard – were canceled for the day, Derby’s superintendent Heather Bohaty made the decision for all USD 260 schools to stay in session on Jan. 11.

“Derby Public Schools WILL have school today,” Bohaty tweeted at 6:54 a.m.

Derby students posted their opinions on social media, such as Snapchat or Twitter, after learning that school would remain in session.

“If even the teachers aren’t coming in, then maybe Derby should have cancelled,” junior Payton O’Brien tweeted.

Senior Jordan Carter tweeted Jan. 10: “I’m scared to drive to school 2morrow.” And on Jan. 11: “Why did I risk my life coming to school just to watch a MOVIE in the lecture hall.”

Because many teachers did not come to school, there were four substitute positions not filled and those students watched a movie in the lecture hall so they could be supervised.

Carter was frustrated about the situation because she made the trip to school despite the weather, not wanting to miss anything.

“It was a waste of a day for me because I got up despite the weather and drove to school even though I knew not a lot of people were going,” Carter said. “I went anyways because I had important classes, but I was in the lecture hall for an hour and a half.”

For students like sophomore Brianna Smith, it was also inconvenient. Smith had to walk to school because her car doors were frozen shut and her dad could not give her a ride since he works in Winfield.

“The ground was really icy and my hands had frozen in a curved position so I decided to stop at McDonald’s to warm up, and they offered me hot cocoa because it was so cold and they could tell that I was frozen,” Smith said.

With her own difficulties getting to school, Smith thinks that it was wrong that Derby did not cancel school.

“The roads were unsafe. There were so many car accidents,” Smith said. “Kids were sliding on the ice trying to get to the school. It was unsafe for the students and possibly the teachers.”

Like Smith, the cold weather made it hard for others students to get to school, whether it was because of the conditions or fear of an accident. Sophomore Anastasia Likiardopoulos’ house door was frozen shut and she could not leave her house until noon. Almost 700 students checked out or did not come to school at all.

The cold weather also caused an accident for sophomore Caleb Meyer, who was rear-ended.

“I thought it was fine until I saw how icy the roads were. Once my dad and I saw that, he told me that he didn’t want me driving and that he would take me,” Meyer said. “I guess he was right that it wasn’t safe for me to drive.”

Although no serious damage was done, the incident caused Meyer to be late for school.

“My sister wasn’t with us. The truck wasn’t damaged too bad, other than a pretty good size dent on the bumper and paint was scratched off the side of the truck,” Meyer said. “My dad and I didn’t know we were even getting hit until the truck started turning sideways, so the lady obviously wasn’t going very fast or else there would had been a bigger impact.”

As the school day continued, Bohaty said she still agrees with her decision to not cancel school.