Snowstorm forces Manhattan teachers to sleep overnight at school
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, Manhattan (WABC) -- Some school teachers and administrators in Manhattan were forced to turn their classrooms into bedrooms due to Thursday's snowstorm.
Roughly 10 teachers and administrators, including a principal and assistant principal, slept overnight at P.S. 128 in Washington Heights because they could not get home.
Parent-teacher conferences went on as scheduled in the evening, despite the heavier than expected snow.
"Some of the teachers live on Long Island, they live in New Jersey," teacher Ige Martinez said. "One of my coworkers was stuck on 178 trying to get to New Jersey for like seven, eight hours, and she didn't get home until 1 this morning."
New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza announced all field trips requiring yellow school buses were canceled on Friday, as were after-school activities, adult education, YABC programs and PSAL activities. But that was too little, too late for some.
"They keep saying that they were prepared, but they were not," Martinez said. "None of the buses had the chains. There was no salt outside. It was chaos."
Alfonso Castillo, a parent of a P.S. 128 student, wanted to know why the district did not cancel those activities on Thursday after the snow started falling.
"They should have been canceled," Castillo said. "As the weather was increasing, it should have been canceled. Plus the accident on the GW? It should have been canceled."
The traffic mess Thursday night meant some children did not get home until very late.
In the Bronx, Veronica Sterling took matters into her own hands, tweeting, "My child will be safe at home after arriving at 12:30 this morning. He earned a day off from the madness yesterday."
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