I have taught school and never taught on the Monday after Thanksgiving. I live in SW PA and taught for 43 years.

[debm55]

The reason the schools were closed is because it is the first day of deer hunting season. Does anyone have that in your state or region? ALL schools are closed, I think with all the shootings schools should be open. What is your opinion? When I asked as a teacher, I was told the kids would take off anyway.

[rsdsharp]

1. We never had anything like that. When I was in school

we got out at 2:30 on Wednesday, and went back Monday morning.

[debm55]

3. What region are you in.

[rsdsharp]

6. Midwest. Iowa, specifically.

[2naSalit]

2. Nope...

But SE Idaho closes some schools for the two heaviest weeks during potato and sugar beet harvest.

[debm55]

4. I can see that. But taking a young child deer hunting and driving around with the dead deer on the hood of your car is

just sickining.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. This is your opinion.

[debm55]

10. Yep it is, I don't think a child should be a witness to a deer being killed and gutted. Maybe HS but not elementary or

JH students.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

16. Why not?

How about a fish?

[2naSalit]

17. It's not uncommon around here.

I am not thrilled with it but locals in these parts engage in subsistence hunting and it's a family gig for some. Those kids know where their food comes from and how it comes to them. I know kids who hunt, only a few keep with the practice over time. Many do it out of need more than anything.

Most of the "sport" hunting is done by out of staters, tourist hunters.

Like I said, I am not thrilled with it but families have to eat and if they hunt and teach their kids about reality, I can't argue with that. It is only in the past fifty or so years that death has been removed as a common feature in life. It's a common feature in life, nobody misses out on this event so why is it not accepted as a real thing?

I was exposed to hunting and butchering at a young age, made me less eager to eat meat but it taught me about the life/death cycle which should be learned by everyone... and you can't make it pretty for those who are uncomfortable.

[debm55]

21. I am the opposite. This is "man" time around here. I see it as a sport with very few eating it. Used to have men with

bucks on their cars, and saying how many points they had on the antlers. My dad hunted during buck season Brought it in the house gutted. I hated that, After taking it to the local dear butcher , I would not eat it.

[Zeitghost]

43. Wild game

Live much better lives than factory farmed food. Hunting keeps populations in balance. The meat is much leaner and healthier than grain fed. Kids that learn where their food comes from and how it is processed gain a respect for the animals and the environment they live in.

There is no downside or anything objectionable to wild game when compared to other forms of meat.

If you don't eat any meat, I can respect your opinion, even if I don not agree with it. But if you're taking this position with a fridge full of chicken breasts and ground beef, you're engaging in massive hypocrisy.

[forthemiddle]

37. Should kids that live on farms not see where their meals com from?

Should we shield our kids from the butcher shops?

[forthemiddle]

36. It's a way of life

And a way many families fill their freezer’s for the winter.
My daughter in law got a nice buck while bow hunting this year, and now she’s out trying for one with the gun. I thanked her for feeding my son (who doesn’t hunt) for the year.
Putting it on the hood is much easier than cleaning the carpet in the trunk of her car.

[DemocratInPa]

39. Some of these people on here..

Would never survive in old times when hunting for food was the only way to survive.

You are right, about it being a way of life. So we shouldn't;t drive now either. Everyday tons of people in SW PA are hitting deers in their cars. Like I said, the population of deers in this area is totally out of control.

[DemocratInPa]

38. I live in SW Pa and must say..

The deer population here is out of control.. I almost hit two the other night driving 5 miles to my house coming home from dinner.

We always have had the first Monday after Thanksgiving off.

[SYFROYH]

45. Kids who go hunting learn more about animal behavior, ecology, and anatomy, than..

…they ever will in high school.

If you’re ok with eating meat, then one has to be OK with hunting and butchering it unless you’re a hypocrite.

[jimfields33]

52. For lots of people, it's survival

That gets them through the rough winter. Thank God they have that option.

[debm55]

55. In a residential suburban area? I see your point , but take it out of a place where residents are not living.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

5. Not in my area (DC area).

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. Works for me. Firearms season starts on a Saturday here, so it's not an issue.

Nice to have that be a longer weekend as well, if the calendar allows it.

[Mr.Bill]

8. The County I just moved out of used to produce a good percentage

of the nation's pear crop. Some years when the harvest was late they would postpone the start of high school because so many kids were working on the harvest.

[debm55]

12. For me, that doesn't bother me. But having young children seeing a deer killed and gutted does. Working a harvest is

different.

[Mr.Bill]

15. I know what you mean.

But it's a way of life for some families. My family were all hunters. I'm really the first generation to not hunt land mammals. I really don't even like fishing. I have gone crabbing a few times.

[debm55]

22. Good.

[Happy Hoosier]

34. What about kids living on a farm?

I hate to tell you, but kids have seen animals being killed and gutted throughout history. I was never a hunter, but I did fish… killed and gutted a probably a hundred fish as a kid.

[WVreaper]

11. That had to have been after my school days

I grew up in southwestern Pa and I can't remember having the first day of deer season with no school, but that was over fifty years ago. I now live in West Virginia . Deer season here starts the Monday before Thanksgiving so they close school for the entire week. It's not for the kids or the teachers but rather the bus drivers and custodial employees of the schools.

[debm55]

13. Wow, the whole week? Now archery season started I think started in September or October and no school was missed.

[WVreaper]

35. Remember Thanksgiving

So it ends up being three days off before the holiday.

[pstokely]

14. if there's low attendance that day, they might lose $

staffing might also be an issue

[debm55]

19. Here in PA , we have to get 180 teaching days in, So the day is built in else where. Under 180 days and you lose your

Last edited Sun Nov 19, 2023, 12:42 PM - Edit history (1)

funds. Most of the teachers in the elementary grades are women. I have to add, I year after Christmas break return, we went to school for one day. Had a 24 inch blizzard -missed 4 days. The following week, we had an Arctic freeze--no school for 5 days. Since we had no built in school days left , we had to make those school days up in June--no AC. in this region.

[jcgoldie]

18. been teaching 20 years in southern Illinois...

...never once have had the Monday after Thanksgiving off.

[debm55]

20. It must be a regional thing here in SW PA. TY

[summer_in_TX]

23. In Texas, hunting season begins November 1.

So no holiday needed after Thanksgiving.

As a kid, we got Wednesday through Sunday off. But by the time I taught schools myself, we had the week off. Kids were not likely to learn much on those two days before a holiday, I guess.

Along the same lines as your extra day off, one ethnically German school district I worked in always had a school holiday on the day the county fair began. Agriculture was big in the county. One year I went to the parade since my co-worker and her husband were named the King and Queen of that fair and rode in the back of a convertible waving to one and all. That was a fascinating parade (I usually find them boring) because it had tractors galore, ranging from new to antiques and the parade was the longest I'd ever attended. Certainly more than an hour and I suspect pushing two.

[kaycee22]

24. School was always closed for the first day of hunting where I grew up

It's still done that way now. Hunting season is a big deal here.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

25. I do believe this is highly local

I haven't lived in the Northeast, but I've lived in five states outside of that. Relatives have lived in a wide range of other states. Had working relationships with a few of their neighbors sometimes as well.

Never heard of getting the Monday off after Thanksgiving. But then I'd never heard about stuff shutting down for Confederate Memorial Day until I was dealing with it. Now there's a stupid holiday, if ever there was one.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

26. I have lived in a total of eight different states,

and clearly deer hunting was not a priority in any of those. I NEVER had school closed the Monday after Thanksgiving. School shootings are at best only peripherally related to hunting. I have made many strong statements about guns and shootings, some of which have been chastised here. Were it up to me, all guns would be confiscated. If you're a hunter, your gun is kept in a central, safe place, and you claim it at the beginning of hunting season, return it afterwards.

To all the defenders of unlimited guns rights, well, what I want to say would probably get me a permanent banishment here, but tell me again that you're okay with your child, mother, wife, brother, best friend, being killed by a gun.

[Elessar Zappa]

29. That would be a terrible position for the Democratic Party to take.

We’d never win another election. Focus on stuff that has public support, like assault weapon bans, magazine limits, and background checks.

[tirebiter]

27. In Nor Cal it was the first day of Ski season.

All the teachers would take it off or call in sick.

[Elessar Zappa]

28. When I was really young, my first couple of school years,

there was a day off for hunting here in southwest NM. I think that stopped around ‘92.

[John1956PA]

30. Thanks for posting. Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, here.

Yes, the Monday after Thanksgiving was always a non-school day for all of the school districts which I knew of in Lawrence and Beaver counties back in the 1960s and 1970s. The courthouse may have been closed in at least one county also. I was never a hunter, but I understand the benefit to thinning the deer herd, since deer running across highways are the cause of some motor vehicle traffic fatalities.

[debm55]

40. I live in Allegheny. Thank you John for your post.

[John1956PA]

42. You are welcome. Thank you for raising this interesting subject.

Pennline.com offers statistics regarding annual Pennsylvania deer harvests, which can be as high as 420,000. The map of the Commonwealth is divided into Wildlife Management Units. Allegheny County is situate in Unit 2B which is one of the highest producing deer harvest units. The image below shows the Unit 2B statistics from the 2017-2018 hunting season and for a few seasons prior to that. Thank you for getting me interested in researching this subject.

[debm55]

46. You are welcome.

[ProfessorGAC]

31. Not Around Here, Deb

Now, the T'giving break starts on Wednesday, but school resumes on Sunday.
We're the fringes of a metro area, so not really rural. That might have something to do with it.

[debm55]

44. I'm not in a rural area. I live about 10 miles south of Pittsburgh.

[ProfessorGAC]

48. Different Here

There are hunters around here. I see them parked along the road for the state parks nearby.
But, no school holiday.

[debm55]

49. The thing is is a residential area with the woods but not many. I know I am off subject. But seeing them walk down your

street and shooting at deer is not my bag. They can go to Bedford, Westmoreland, Somerset Counties. to hunt. Not in a residential area. Yesterday there was a young buck shot with an arrow trying to walk into the brush. The day before , my neighbor and myself were feeding three of the apples. It was shot in someone's yard. I thought the Game Commission had a rule that you had to be a certain distance from homes. We couldn't get down the hill side to remove the arrow. It was very sad but also dangerous for people living here.

[ProfessorGAC]

50. Geez!

I don't see anything like that here!

[debm55]

56. It is like that here, I really find it dangerous.

[debm55]

47. I live in a residential area. but I see archers and gunners walking down the street. Are there woods around here? No.

They cut them down to build the corridor connecting WV to Pittsburgh.

[hvn_nbr_2]

32. My south central PA experience

The first day of hunting season was a regular school day but about half the boys didn't come to school that day. I don't remember it being the Monday after T-day, but that was a long time ago.

[tavernier]

33. Are there no grocery stores in Iowa?

Is there a great need for rifles to feed the population?
I know I know, I’m a smart ass. And I do realize that the deer population needs to be thinned every once in a while. If guns were used for only this purpose, I would be a pro gun advocate as well.

[debm55]

41. I live in SW PA in Allegheny county. I live in a residential area. They cut down the woods behind my home to build the

Last edited Sun Nov 19, 2023, 01:15 PM - Edit history (1)

connecting turnpike from WV to Pittsburgh. What I don't like to see is guys walking down my street with power bows during bow season and high power rifles during hunting season. Do it out in the woods. I have contacted the PA Game Commision.No results.

[tavernier]

57. My daughter has a farm in southeastern Indiana.

Two years ago she and two of her neighbors were sitting out in front of the barn, very huge barn, not to be mistaken for trees or other landscape. Out of the West, two shots were fired above their heads that hit the barn siding. This was during deer hunting season.

Yeah, I get your nervousness. Especially because the property adjacent on all sides of my daughter’s is owned by people who don’t hunt and do not let other people on their property do so.

[WiVoter]

51. Wisconsin Has It In Certain Parts Of The State

I teach in north central Wisconsin, and we have school Monday & Tuesday, with W-F off. However, several neighboring school districts have the week of Thanksgiving off. Deer season (gun season) runs this week also.

[pfitz59]

53. In remote NorCal we didn't get any days off

just hunted before and after school right next to our campus. Wasn't unusual to see someone dressing out a deer while going to school.

[ChazII]

54. I taught from 1980 to 2013 in Phoenix

and we always taught the Monday after Thanksgiving. Of course the valley is not a hunting area. I honestly don't know if the hunting areas of our state have class on Monday or not.