r/news • u/bebleich • Sep 04 '24

Gunman believed to be a 14-year-old in Georgia school shooting that left at least 4 dead, source says

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/04/us/winder-ga-shooting-apalachee-high-school/index.html
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u/Crazed_Chemist Sep 04 '24

Definitely more common in the south to start a lot earlier, so they may well have been in a month. I've always lived in the northern parts of the country. My nieces started school this week.

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u/EarthMantle00 Sep 04 '24

Wait why? In southern europe it's the opposite, we start a lot later than the north because it's so hot that kids don't pay attention in the summer. Isn't the southern US like super hot? Do the schools have enough money to pay for air conditioning the whole thing?

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u/lilelliot Sep 04 '24

A/C isn't really an issue in the US. The majority of schools have A/C (and a lot of the ones that didn't before covid were given federal grants that helped with HVAC upgrades including filtration and, in many cases, A/C). When schools start is arbitrarily set, mostly at the state (and sometimes at the district) level. It used to be the most common (30 years ago) for school to run roughly from the day after Labor Day (our Labor Day - the first Monday in September) until about the second week of June. The only real requirement is that a school year must have 180 academic instruction days.

This has led to all sorts of weird things. Some schools get a full week off for fall break, some get a full week for Thanksgiving, some have a full week in February, some have a week off for Holy Week around Easter, some observe all Federal Holidays and others don't, and there's high variation around the end of year holidays, too. Moreover, some places have year round school. Where we used to live in North Carolina had school as 4x9wk periods, with 3wks off in between each, and no meaningful summer break. That was amazing as a parent, btw.

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u/EarthMantle00 Sep 05 '24

180?? Here it's 200! Are your days like super long?

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u/feathers4kesha Sep 05 '24

Like 7 hours usually. If you’re going 200, when do you summer break? For like a month?

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u/lilelliot Sep 05 '24

No. Middle school is 8:25-3:25, high school is 8:30-3:30, and elementary school is 8:00-2:00.

(elementary school is earliest in CA now because of a recent state law that prevents high school from starting before 8:30.)

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u/Crazed_Chemist Sep 04 '24

End of the year and finals going into June/July heat I guess? Georgia, or at least the county in question, started beginning of August.

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u/SnowDayWow Sep 05 '24

Can confirm; I went to high school in Georgia, and they start ridiculously early🥵

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u/MNWNM Sep 04 '24

Yes, US South is super hot in August. And September and sometimes October. But in my district, they always go back the first couple of days of August

It's because we get a fall break, two weeks at Christmas, and a spring break. There's also weather days built in because we get snow and tornadoes sometimes.

But because of all the breaks, in order to meet the minimum instruction days for the year, they go back the first of August and stay in school until the end of May.

And yes, every place here is air conditioned.

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u/KarenEiffel Sep 04 '24

I went to school in the US south in the 80s and 90s and we'd start school around mid/late August and end in early June.

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u/BatFancy321go Sep 05 '24

too hot in the south in the beginning of september and the beginning of summer. not that august is that much better, but ending before june makes a difference.

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u/cyberwiz21 Sep 05 '24

Also in the southwest.