An online weather educator is getting thunderous applause for his perfect take-down of trolls complaining about weather-related school closures.
The Weather Dork, a social media influencer who provides educational content about meteorology and weather-related news for the Hudson Valley region of New York, was just doing his job when he covered a front of strong storms in the area.
But when his Facebook post about the storms got flooded with trolling responses from people angry about local schools being dismissed early, The Weather Dork had a perfect anecdote to put them in place.
The Weather Dork told a harrowing story, seen below, of a local school system choosing not to dismiss their students early on a day when a tornado ended up hitting the school.
The Weather Dork began his post by directly addressing those angry that local schools had been closed for severe weather. He wrote:
"A lot of folks are salty about schools dismissing early for the severe weather threat today."
"I have a painful story to share about this very topic."
He then went on to detail what happened in the town of Newburgh, New York one day in November of 1989.
"...[T]here were 120 elementary students eating lunch at East Coldenham Elementary near Newburgh, NY..."
"A severe storm steamrolled into the area and generated a tornado."
"The powerful winds caused a glass wall in the cafeteria to collapse onto the children."
In all, nine students died and 18 others sustained injuries. After providing the harrowing details, The Weather Dork then put people complaining about school closures firmly in place.
"...I understand that some people believe that folks 'are soft' these days. Yes, those people probably 'never had an early dismissal for severe storms growing up' or they 'had to walk 5 miles in home in a thunderstorm.'..."
"...Am I salty that the kids today possibly weren't exposed to a window shattering in their classroom because they were dismissed before the storms hit? Um. No."
"There are some people who are happy when others don't have to struggle as they did. Then there are others who are happy when everyone has to struggle as they have."
For me, if districts can avoid a situation like what happened on November 16 by sending students home ahead of time, I think that's worth it. That's all I got."
In the comments on his post, many people thanked The Weather Dork for setting the trolls straight.
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When it comes to kids, it's always better to be safe than sorry.