Hurricane Ophelia: School principals angry over closure tweet
- Published
Some principals in Northern Ireland have criticised how late they were instructed to close their schools due to storm Ophelia.
The Department of Education (DE) advised schools to close in a tweet posted from the NI Executive account at 22:22 GMT on Sunday 15 October.
Many principals had to try to contact parents and pupils late at night.
However, DE said they felt communicating to the public via social media "would have the largest impact".
The tweet from the NI Executive, external account said: "All schools should close tomorrow (Monday 16 October) as precautionary measure in light of weather warnings."
Derek Harness of Carr's Glen primary school in Belfast said it was initially confusing.
"You're wondering how genuine is the tweet, how genuine is the message," he said.
"I checked school e-mail to see if there had been anything sent through from the department or the Education Authority but there was nothing.
"At that stage, there was a great deal of confusion over whether this was genuine."
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The Education Authority had sent an e-mail to principals on Friday 13 October warning about the possible impact of Ophelia.
However, at that stage no closure of schools was suggested.
The Republic of Ireland's department for education and skills sent an e-mail confirming the closure of all schools and colleges there at 20:20 GMT on Sunday.
However, the tweet with the same message from Northern Ireland's executive was not sent until about two hours later.
The principal of St Mary's College in Londonderry, Marie Lindsay, was also critical of how late she was told to close her school.
"A decision really needed to have been made much earlier in the evening to let families make the arrangements for school closures," she said.
"Looking at Ophelia and knowing that it was going to be the worst storm to hit the island of Ireland in 50 years the decision could have been taken much earlier.
"I think there was a distinct lack of leadership and very poor communication."
Other principals took to social media on Sunday night to express similar opinions.
However, in a statement DE said that they took the decision to advise schools to close after a multi-agency meeting on Sunday night.
"Weather alerts were continually monitored throughout the weekend in addition to decisions being taken across other agencies," they said.
"Given the severity and timing of the weather warnings for Northern Ireland, with the highest risk being when pupils will be travelling home from school, officials in the department made the decision to close schools to ensure the safety of all children.
"We understand the difficulties this causes to parents and schools, however, the department's priority is to the children and young people that it has responsibility for.
"It was decided that communicating to the public via social media and broadcast media would have the largest impact and have more success in directly reaching those affected given the late hour.
"The level of re-tweets as well as comments on facebook would indicate that our message reached a large audience."
The department has also confirmed that all youth services have been closed.
- Published16 October 2017
- Published16 October 2017
- Published15 October 2017
