Notre Dame football recruit dies in fall from hotel balcony

Surprised that here in Cincy, 99.9 percent of the coverage has been of the "what a shame" and "he was such a good kid" type. Very little discussion in the media (newspapers, TV) about how a 17yo got alcohol and the fact that someone's probably facing legal action.

 

Once somebody does face legal action I think you'll see that coverage.

God help that person if he/she is one of the parents who was chaperoning the trip.

 

I actually went to Spain, France and Italy with the Spanish Club from my high school for Spring Break senior year. I was the only one who was legal to buy booze (although all the underage kids found ways to buy it anyway) and the only one who wasn't interested. My best friend went as well and both of us had academic scholarships to college. Our parents trusted us (I had actually already gone to Europe once with her mom and older sister. We were all in a choir that performed across Europe.) and knew we were just going there for the culture and knowledge and to celebrate our high school graduation.

It all comes down to hoping that you've raised your kids to make good choices and surround themselves with the right people who aren't going to do something retarded. The thing is - once you're 18, you're so close to being free that if you haven't instilled some sort of personal responsibility to not get wasted and fall off a balcony, that kid may never get it. It's sad but true. But by the time they're that age, they know the difference between right and wrong and need to figure out that their actions will have consequences. It's sad that this kid had to pay for it with his life, but he's old enough to know better.

 

No one in our New Jersey HS went on Spring Break trips to FL; on the other hand everyone went to the St. Patrick's Day parade in NYC and got drunk. Everyone looked the other way. You did an afternoon's detention the next day and were back in the nuns' good graces.

 

Hand-wringing again in Cincinnati. This time, it's an SUV with six high school girls returning from spring break in Florida that goes out of control, crashes. One dead.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100417/NEWS0103/304150018/1055/NEWS/NDA+in+shock+after+fatal+car+crash

 

When I was a kid, our motto was: "Beer is for Eighth graders."

Jack Daniels was an honorary member of my high school class. And when did want to relive our middle school days, we'd tap a keg in the parking lot before 8 a.m. class.

We all survived.

 

I spent six weeks in France the summer between sophomore and junior years of high school. A dozen of us went with our French teacher. The first month was intensive classwork at a boarding school in the Alps (up the mountain from Grenoble), then ten days in Paris.

There was no assumption that the teacher would chaperon all of us for those full ten days. We worked on the scout "buddy" system; there had to be at least three of you to leave together. So we'd sign out in groups of three or four, split up as soon as we got off the Metro, then meet at the arranged time to return together.

I wouldn't necessarily want to know that my daughter was doing this, but if she was in the same situation and didn't, I would be disappointed in her.

 

I went to Florida my senior year of high school in 1992. Panama City, and honestly this story doesn't surprise me a bit. In fact I can't believe more of these things don't happen. I don't know about now, but back then getting alcohol was not hard at all, between fake ID's and some over 21 people that were there already or whatever, it was not hard to find at all.

I didn't tell my parents that I was going to FL, a couple of friends and I had said we were going camping for a few days in North Ga. Instead we drove 6 hours south instead of 2 hours north. I had a job and had saved up the money to go and had some friends who's parents had money that let us crash in their rooms. It was really easy and quite a few people from my high school and other local high schools were there.

 

Kid-to-adult ratio greater than 6-to-1?
Staying in a cheapo hotel?
In what is known to be the king - and wildest - of all spring break destinations?

Yeah, what could possibly go wrong??!

I've been to PCB more than a dozen times and have never had a problem. Of course, I've always gone with my family. In the summer. Never, ever during spring break. And I've always stayed in a gated condo community that will send security to your room for leaving a towel or food (inviting birds to fly in) on the balcony or will escort you back to the room or off campus if you don't have a pool pass.

If I was a parent, however, I would never let my kid to to PCB between February-April unless I was with them or my child was traveling with a team under the direct supervision of school coaches, administrators, etc. And some of the baseball/softball teams from my area still get into plenty of trouble down there. One particular baseball program got a five-year ban from the school system on all out of state trips because of what some yahoo players did on spring break (got drunk on the beach and left a freshman there ... who dehydrated and had alcohol poisoning).

Plus, that recruit who fell to his death off a balcony (which usually have high enough rails that it is near impossible to accidentally fall over unless you're being pushed or not paying any attention whatsoever) wasn't exactly a scrawny kicker. Either he couldn't hold his booze or he chugged half the keg by himself.

Stupid kid. Stupid parent. And where were the six supposed chaperones or anyone with a brain to intervene?

Sad situation.
But a highly preventable one, too.