JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — On Monday afternoon, the sky will darken over 48 states as the moon passes in front of the sun.
“It’s a great opportunity because it’s a rarity,” Stennis Space Center Operations Director Thom Rich. “It doesn’t happen all the time.”
One area school district has made a big decision ahead of April 8th’s cosmic event.
“I didn’t think they were going to close the schools for a solar eclipse,” one Jefferson Parish parent said. “It doesn’t seem necessary.”
Thursday afternoon, the Jefferson Parish School Board announced early dismissal on Monday, leaving some parents in a bind.
“It was very inconvenient,” the parent said. “It caught me off guard.”
The eclipse will be visible across the United States for much of the afternoon, with hundreds of schools nationwide deciding to call off school altogether. Jefferson Parish’s School Board said quote, “The early dismissal is necessary to get all students home safely before the eclipse.”
One engineer at Nasa thinks Jefferson Parish could be missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime chance to spark students’ interest in STEM.
“It probably would have been better to weave that into the curriculum,” Rich said. “What STEM means, what this means in their life, what this could potentially mean to the future, those types of things.”
If you or your child want to get a glimpse of the solar eclipse on Monday, be sure to wear eclipse glasses. If you don't, experts say there could be dark consequences.
“If you try it, you can lose your vision forever. If you look directly at an eclipse, you can get retinopathy and that retinopathy is serious
Looking at the eclipse even for a second can cause permanent damage. We won’t see another solar eclipse until 2044.
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