Streets flooded, interstates shut down, cars trapped in three feet of water, but where are the students of the Chandler Unified School District? They are at school. On September 8, Arizona broke its record for its wettest day in history, leaving many wondering why the Chandler district did not cancel school for the day as most of the other surrounding districts had.

CUSD Superintendent Camille Casteel explains the cons of canceling school after it had already begun, “The challenge was when we realized how potentially damaging the storm was, high school students were in 0 hours or on their way to school. Busses were already on their routes.”

Principal Dan Serrano believes it was a good choice to go about school like any other day. “I don’t think there was any reason to cancel it,” he states, “they thought it was okay to run the buses, which they did, and I thought it was a good decision.”

An announcement stating that students who were unable to make it to school safely would be excused of absences was sent out by the district and this led many students and parents to believe that school was optional.

Casteel claims the feedback from students, parents and staff came mixed, “Some thought we should have closed … others appreciated the option.”

Serrano agreed that many parents were not pleased with Chandler Unified’s decision. “We had 540 students whose parents came and got them once they were already safely at school.” He believes that it was an unfortunate situation, stating, “We lost a day of instruction.”

However, some did not show up because they could not guarantee that they would make it safely. English teacher Erika Stueber was unable to make it to school due to the weather conditions. “Everybody has to make a judgement call whether its safe or not for them; for me I know it was unsafe,” she says.

Stueber believes the district did everything they could to make sure students were safe, adding, “I think they made the best choice that they could’ve with the information they had at the time.”

Security Guard Linda Skanes explains that the student drop off experienced chaos due to the rain. “A lot of the [kids] were late because of some problems out on the street,” she says.

Skanes also believes many students were checked out by parents due to the fear of not being able to get them later, “I think the parents thought there was too much rain and they weren’t going to be able to come and get them later.”

Although many were hoping for the cancellation of school, the possibility of it is highly unlikely.  The rainfall on September 8 caused a mass amount of turmoil and is not to be forgotten.