Editor’s view: School closure the most strange call in weird week

In the olden days (pre-Covid) schools used to be the last thing closed. Now they are closed simply because there are storms forecast, writes The Editor.

It would surely now not surprise any parent if Annastacia Palaszczuk announced every school in Queensland will now be closed every time there is a full moon.

It would equally not be at all surprising if we learned from police that Education Minister Grace Grace was being held hostage at the Queensland Teachers’ Union office in Milton, with the demand for her release being a mandated four-day school week – with Thursdays also considered optional “home learning” days.

Both these changes would no doubt be announced breathlessly by the Premier after a “very serious” extended meeting of the Education Disaster Management Committee.

School principals would not be warned ahead of time – instead, the Education Department would be left with a mad scramble after the event to figure out how to best communicate the change, and schools would be told to implement the changes from tomorrow.

Fantasy? Hardly. Because this is not far from what has happened already this week – with genuine concerns about this historic weather event getting mixed up in politics.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Josh Woning

In the olden days (pre-Covid) schools used to be the last thing closed. Now they are closed simply because there are storms forecast! Maybe we should just bite the bullet and cancel the first term every year to avoid the uncertainty.

We joke. But Thursday was pretty comedic when parents were sent scurrying back at lunchtime to pick up their kids in the bright sunshine because of a forecast of possible storms that afternoon.

It turns out a rogue post to social media by one of the Premier’s 30-strong media team sparked the confusion. It read: “Parents in southeast areas affected by flooding and storms should collect children from school when it is safe to do so.” But the warning was only meant for those regions from Caboolture to Bundaberg. It was deleted and the correct information posted, but not before chaos across the South East.

As people who produce a newspaper every day, we know better than most everyone makes mistakes. But this is a government dealing with a pretty large-scale emergency situation. Being precise surely matters.

The first of two posts from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk which caused confusion for parents. Photo: Supplied

The edict to pick up your kids was also announced by the Premier at her very serious press conference on Thursday. The Premier did say the edict only applied to those areas from Caboolture to Bundaberg. But the damage had been done. To issue a “pick your kids up now” warning without telling principals first – and to do so in such an imprecise way parents across the region, not just those in the warning zone, responded by driving straight to the school gate, was reckless at best.

Meanwhile, Friday’s blanket closure of schools was based on the weather bureau’s advice that even normal storms could lead to flash flooding, due to the fact everything is already so wet.

But it seems a massive call to cancel all school because of a forecast for Brisbane that last night literally read: “Partly cloudy, high chance of showers – most likely in the late morning and afternoon. The chance of a thunderstorm, possibly severe.” A severe weather warning in early March in South East Queensland is hardly a rare event.

And we all thought lockdowns and stay-at-home orders were a thing of the past! It turns out, post Covid, they are now just part of the political kit-bag.

The second of two posts from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk which caused confusion for parents. Photo: Supplied

Perhaps the Premier is still hurting from the criticism she copped after apparently not making enough of the weather warnings for the weekend. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and the criticism was unwarranted. But she should remember that at the end of a week like this one the last thing an emotionally drained, exhausted and stressed community needs is their leader sowing more fear.

The Premier, however, has obviously decided the risk is in underreacting to weather events – not overreacting.

The other politics in all of this is just as obvious: we have an Education Minister without the courage to stand up to the Teachers’ Union – as shown on Monday, when late in the day the Minister bowed to a demand from the Teachers Union that school be cancelled on Tuesday – having already said it would go ahead. The result was chaos for families across the South East. And yet in Brisbane on Tuesday, just 0.2mm of rain ended up falling. Meanwhile under mostly sunny skies at the Gabba on Thursday, 72 overs were bowled. Queensland ended the day at 4-158.