Students, faculty and staff at the Laboratory Schools experienced their first snow day in years on Feb. 2, when both Lab and the university closed campus due to a winter storm. The announcement came around 7 p.m. Feb. 1.

While some high school students had to attend end-of-semester classes over Zoom, others spent their unexpected free time playing in the snow and relaxing. 

Sophomore Zoe Nathwani immediately felt relief upon hearing the news since she was supposed to have an in-person exam for her AT European History class, which will now be asynchronous. 

“I hadn’t had much time to study, so I was pretty happy that I wasn’t going to have to do it today,” Zoe said. 

Most families heard the news through either a phone call from Lab’s emergency communication system or an email, but senior Will Trone wishes students were directly notified. 

“I don’t know if people were supposed to ‘get emails,’ but I definitely think that Lab should let their students know that they are not having school the next day because of snow,” Will said. 

Junior Vincent Zhang heard about the campus closure from his parents. He spent his day attending his AT Biology and Accelerated Precalculus/Calc A class through Zoom.

“At first I thought all classes were canceled, and I didn’t have any tests so it was kind of not that big of a deal,” Vincent said. “But then my teachers emailed and said we would have classes on Zoom.”

While ninth grader Paola Almeda was initially excited about the cancellation of in-person classes, she was disappointed she couldn’t spend the long free period with friends. 

“I was planning on watching a movie with one of my friends because we just had so much time, and we were going to watch it today over Zoom but we weren’t able to do that,” Paola said. 

Paola only met with her English class over Zoom to complete an in-class essay.

Senior Margaux Einhorn had no classes over Zoom. She used her free time to sleep more. 

“I slept in a lot, and I just spent more time with my breakfast,” Margaux said. “I just had more time to eat it, and it was overall just a slower-moving day.”

With the expectation of making a few snowballs, Margaux primarily remained inside all day. Zoe braved the cold weather to walk and make snow angels with her friend.

“We walked around and played in the snow for a bit but then got cold, so we came back inside and had matcha while watching TV,” Zoe said. “I hadn’t played in the snow since I was a little kid, so it was kind of nostalgic for me.”

Will and Vincent’s only exposure to the snow was when driving to unofficial swim practice. According to Will, the main roads were mostly plowed, but side roads were difficult to drive through. 

“We passed by an apartment nearby, and there was a car, and a bunch of people were trying to get it out of being stuck,” Will said. 

While Vincent was himself unconcerned with the large amount of snow outside, he felt Lab needed to cancel in-person classes. 

“I moved here from Canada, and so a few inches of snow isn’t that big of a deal,” Vincent said. “Some people have long commutes, so it definitely would have been unsafe for them to drive to school.”

Margaux appreciated the day to stay home as she believes commuting to school would have been difficult.

Margaux said, “It’s been a long time since we had a snow day, but it’s just part of coming back to school full time that we have things like snow days.”