On snow days

In the winter, I hear talk about schools cancelling classes because of snow.

One part of that discussion is that school officials are afraid of liability. In Virginia, the liability of school employees and school boards for simple negligence is limited by sovereign immunity and the school bus insurance statute, Va. Code 22.1-194, as Judge Wilson held in this opinion granting a motion to dismiss claims against individuals related a school bus accident in Botetourt County.

Another part of the discussion is what is the effect of school days on learning. The answer according to this article is that school days cause lower test scores.

The Media General article on Justice Kinser

I finally got around to checking out the fine article on Justice Kinser, who is becoming the Chief Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court. It seems like not so long ago that she joined the Supreme Court, yet with the retirement of Justice Koontz, all the other justices have less tenure than she does, but for current Chief Justice Hassell.

One fact in the article that I had never heard was that Judge Samuel G. Wilson of the W.D. Va. was one who urged her to apply for the Supreme Court position in 1997, but then Judge Wilson was U.S. Magistrate at the time when Justice Kinser was clerking for Judge Williams, and so perhaps they have known each other for many years.