Quick-moving winter storm brings snow to Northeast
HARTFORD, CONN. >> A quickmoving winter storm battered cities in the Northeast with snowfall, sending huge waves crashing into the New England coastline and forcing New York City schools into glitch-filled remote learning reminiscent of the early days of the pandemic.
Airlines canceled or delayed flights while accidents were reported on slippery roads, and at least one person died.
The storm quickly passed through the region, producing snowfall totals that were significant in some cities but much less than expected in others. New York City recorded just 3 inches (7.62 centimeters) of snow in Central Park, but areas of Pennsylvania and Connecticut were blanketed with 15 inches (38.10 centimeters) of fluffy snow, according to National Weather Service reports.
“It's been a quiet winter, so it's kind of welcoming,” Ricky Smith said as he made his way to a construction job in New York City. “I just hope nobody gets hurt.”
In New York City, the nation's largest school district opted to shift to remote learning instead of giving students and staff a snow day, sparking criticism by many. And when classes began, technical problems prevented many of the 915,000 students from logging in, exacerbating the discontent.
PS 112 in East Harlem had a promising start to its virtual school day with a schoolwide read-aloud, teacher Jessica Roach said. But the rest of the morning, when teachers and families tried to access the district's domain, cascading technical problems confused her young special education students and inconvenienced their parents.
“A lot of kids lost out because of technical issues,” she said.
Chong Bretillon, a parent in Queens, said she received repeated errors as she tried to gain entry to a Zoom room for her elementary school student, while messaging with dozens of other parents who were encountering the same problems.
“I just spent almost an hour trying to log in and log out,” Bretillon said. “Everyone's frustrated.”
New York Mayor Eric Adams defended the decision to go remote in the schools, saying it was necessary because of learning losses during the coronavirus pandemic.
School officials blamed the troubles on IBM, with Schools Chancellor David Banks saying the company “was not ready for primetime.”
IBM said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that it worked with the schools and the issues “were largely resolved,” but the company did not immediately respond to questions.