Jefferson freshman Jay Abraham created a petition on Monday, Jan. 14 to close Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) on Tuesday due to inclement weather. The petition amassed over 13,000 signatures from students at six FCPS high schools.

“I was worried [about] the safety of students all over the county after seeing the crazy amounts of snow some parts of [Fairfax County] had gotten,” Abraham said. “I decided I should do something about it.”

The petition, which was set up on petition website “Care 2 Petitions”, was shared on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter throughout the day on Monday. The petition was so popular, that at times, it was receiving close to 100 signatures per minute.

“I thought my goal of 5,000 signatures was unrealistic,” Abraham said. “But within a couple [of] hours, we were already at 3,000 signatures, and the number was going up exponentially.”

The petition was emailed to FCPS school board members, and even got a reply from school board member, Megan McLaughlin.

“The school board received the petition and [wanted] to listen to the [students],” Abraham said. “but ultimately, the decision [had already been made]”

FCPS ended up granting a two-hour delay as opposed to a full closing of all facilities. Students were uncomfortable with the decision as they felt road conditions were still dangerous.

“As a student driver, I had never driven to school in the snow or ice, so I felt a bit nervous about getting to school since we got so much snow,” senior Dheeraj Jassal said.

Like several other students who signed the petition, Jassal was disappointed with the decision, but, he also feels that the petition was big for other reasons.

“Even though we weren’t able to close school[s], I feel like it was really cool that the petition united so many students from around the county,” Jassal said. “It really showed that students can have a voice if they set their mind to it.”