A solar eclipse will wash across North America on Monday April 8, 2024. 31 million people live in the path of the solar eclipse. The last time there was a total solar eclipse was the year 1806.
The very beginning of the 2024 eclipse over Cleveland should start at approximately 1:59 p.m. and end at 4:29 p.m.. The height of the eclipse, meaning total darkness, is projected to be at 3:15 p.m.
While all of this is going on, students of Solon will as of now, be in school.
Twinsburg, Aurora and Hawken schools, along with various others, are able to stay home from school during this eclipse.
Students are unhappy about this for many reasons. Personally, I do not want to miss this once in a lifetime experience.
I worry about us missing this experience being stuck in school. A few of my classrooms have no windows at all, and there would be no way to see the eclipse. We won’t be able to ever see it again. I know that my father will have me skip school anyway, and many other kids will do the same.
Thousands upon thousands of people will come to Cleveland because we will have such a good view. How could the residents of Cleveland miss it while other people will be traveling to where we are to see it?
I spoke to the person in my life that feels stronger about all of this than I do, my father, Mark Wellman. He doesn’t want any student to miss this.
“The eclipse will be a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Mark Wellman said. “People all over the world will travel to the Cleveland area to see the eclipse. We should at a minimum be taking the day off to observe it, learn about it and understand it.
“It would seem out of sorts for young people to be stuck in school and not be able to do that. It is a very big deal in the astronomy world of science and to say that you didn’t see it because school wasn’t off would be a big missed opportunity.”
But on top of not wanting to miss this experience, most teens, like me, will be driving home at that time from SHS. Teens are inexperienced drivers. At most, students have been driving for two, maybe three years which is not long enough to drive during a solar eclipse as the eclipse will be a distraction.
Furthermore, looking at the sun in a solar eclipse can cause “eclipse blindness” which is basically retina burns. When your retinas burn it damages them permanently. The retina sends what you see to your brain to process it. It is a crucial part of a person’s vision. Anyone driving during a solar eclipse is ill advised. Staff leaving, buses taking children home and parents picking up their children will also be on the road during the height of the eclipse. And to make things worse, it is a bad idea to wear eclipse glasses while driving, so to drive at all is unsafe.
Mark Wellman worries for the safety of teen drivers as well.
“It will be a full eclipse,” Mark Wellman said. “So it will be completely dark, meaning that animals that are nocturnal may come out. It will only be a four to five minute total eclipse, but things can go oddly if you are caught in the middle of traffic and all of the sudden it is completely black. So you certainly wouldn’t want to be driving.”
I spoke with Tamara Strom the Communications Director at the Solon Board of Education, and she told me there is yet to be a decision on Solon taking the day off, but there will be one out early January.
I believe that students in all Solon schools should get the day off and spend it with family and friends taking in the once in a lifetime experience.
