Natalee Holloway

Did you not read rallen's post?

He put a big part of the onus on the parents.

And they deserve it in this sense: An 18-year-old isn't necessarily ready to play adult.

They did not deserve to have their daughter disappear, no one does.

 

I take your criticisms without complaint Captain_Kirk and TheSportsPredict. I do so because I shoud have perhaps been clearer in what I said. I don't defend the defendents. After all, I am the one who mentioned Luca Brasi. And no, I don't condemn the victim either. But I would have to wonder what my feeings as a parent would be IF I knew that my senior high daughter had made some poor choices and yet I let her walk into a situation like Natalee did. I would never forgive myself for not doing something to correct a behavior that could lead to trouble. And if I didn't know what she did or was doing, I would have to ask myself if I had served her well as a parent or if I had been guilty of letting her fall through the cracks without doing enough to warn or protect her. The perpetrators, whoever they are, need to be found and harshly dealt with to the fullest. But let us not as parents walk around with a blind eye to what our children may be doing or may have done, and do nothing about it. That is indirectly putting them in harms way. If she had been doing anything questionable and they knew it, letting her go on that trip was an invitation to disaster. It is my genuine hope that she had not, and that she was the true precious child we are told about. Precious she and all children are and should be to us all. But human she was also. And a teenager. And as one who has worked with students from middle to high school for over 30 years, I have seen too many like her make wrong and sometimes tragic decisions. I weep for her and for the students I have lost; to suicide, murder, preventable accident, and one top drawer student-athlete to the state executioner for a single wrong decision by an otherwise fine young man.

 

I think I was fortunate to go 30 miles to Six Flags for a graduation trip. No way in hell my folks would foot the bill/give their blessing for Padre or Daytona, let alone somewhere out of the country.

Holloway didn't deserve what happened to her. Of course not. But the odds of it happening would have been dramatically lowered if she weren't 17 years old in Aruba.

 

I think tragedies like this happen to children of good parents as well as children of bad parents. I think tragedies like this happen to adult women who come from good families as well as bad. I think tragedies like this happen to people who don't necessarily place themselves into situations which give people the opportunity to say they deserved it.

The people to blame here are the lying pigs who did whatever they did to her. Since no one can say exactly who they are we turn our emotions to the only people we know who were involved in this, and that's the victim and her family.

P.S. I went to Quebec as a high school senior on a trip for my French class. Some girls went, too. And then when my group got off the elevator at our hotel there was a whole group of girls from some other trip waiting for us there cuz they saw our suitcases with some boys names on them. I don't know who was good and who was bad on that trip (probably because I was good), but no one died.

 

Why are children rewarded for graduating high school. Isn't that to be expected?

 

You didn't receive gifts when you graduated high school? You didn't have a party?

 

First let me start with I think 17 is way too young to go on a trip like that without parents. But with that said, it seems you think the vacation is a reward for graduating. So does that make your vacation from work a reward? Is doing your job not something that's to be expected anyway?

I see nothing wrong with a little reward, so long as it is safe.

 

Is it completely outside the realm of possibility that what actually happened is what the guys said happened: For whatever reason, they left her there on the beach by herself? And then, because she was drunk, she decided it would be totally fun to go swimming, and she got pulled out to sea and drowned? They're not going to try these guys because they don't have any proof that they killed her, Nancy Grace's screaming aside.

To me, the justice system there did its job. They identified with whom she was last seen, they tried to figure out if those people killed her and they realized they didn't have evidence to prove those people did.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

No party ... unless you count the big kegger out at somebody's parents' country home. And the only gifts I got were things I'd need for the dorm in the fall.

 

That's cool. But you DO realize that presents and/or a party accompany high-school graduation for many kids across the country, no?

That being said, I definitely would NOT allow my child to go on such a trip at that point. There are many other suitable gifts one could give to a graduate.

 

Agree 100 percent. I'm not sure this case was botched. The police have learned everything that is within their power to learn. Barring a confession by one of the participants, the end of the line has probably been reached here.