Hawklets Enjoy Their ‘Red Snow Day’

Ever since schools gained the ability to hold classes online, the concept of an old fashioned snow day has seemingly become extinct. However, Rockhurst had one Wednesday, Feb. 15 despite not one flake of snow hitting the ground. Thanks to “Mahomes magic” and James Bradberry’s late-game holding call, the Hawklets had a “Red Snow Day” to celebrate the Chiefs victory in Super Bowl LVII.

Father Vincent Giacabazi, S.J, the principal of Rockhurst High School, thought it was important for the members of the Hawklet community to have the opportunity to experience the championship parade that was scheduled to begin at noon.

“Rockhurst’s administration desired to allow our faculty, staff, and students — and by extension, our students’ families and our own colleagues’ families — the freedom to choose to celebrate the Chiefs’ championship, either in person or at a distance, the planned municipal festivities and victory parade,” Giacabazi said via email.

According to Giacabazi, this decision was made after consultation with other Catholic schools in the area. He also recognized the rare nature of a Super Bowl victory, noting that there has only been three in the history of the Chiefs since the team moved to Kansas City in 1963.

Many Hawklets students took advantage of the off day by showing support for their hometown team. Junior Max Zitariuk is one of those students who attended the championship parade. Zitariuk was thankful that he did not have to miss class to do so.

“I was definitely happy that Rockhurst canceled school,” Zitariuk said. “Winning the Super Bowl doesn’t happen every year, so you already know I’m pulling up whenever there’s a parade.”

Other students, like junior Leo Engelke, used the extra time to relax and catch up with schoolwork.

“I thought it was a good opportunity to do homework and a little extra studying,” Engelke said. “It was also nice to have a day off in the middle of the week where I didn’t have to do anything.”

However, Engelke and the rest of the Rockhurst community had to regroup on the day after the parade to finish out the week. They were helped out by an early release day that was scheduled on Thursday due to parent teacher conferences in the afternoon. In fact, the Hawklets only had one normal day of school during that week, with a late start on the Monday following the Super Bowl, the parade on Wednesday, the early release day on Thursday, and no school on Friday due to a teacher in-service day.

Despite this, Engelke believes that the experience of attending a championship parade was worth the scheduling issue.

“I think school being canceled did increase the workload in my classes for the next couple days, but I would definitely trade that for having an entire day off.”