According to an article in The Lancet a few years ago, nearly 10 million children under the age of five die annually. That is more than 1000 every hour, approximately 1 every 3.6 seconds. Poverty, expressed in malnutrition and disease, is the primary cause of their death. Social violence also plays an important role.
Every one of these deaths affected someone the same way that the death of this young man does. In my mind, while this death is no more tragic, it is especially sad because it appears to have been preventable.
I hope that posters will continue to be moderate in their comments. Whether one agrees that they would allow their kids to take part or not, this seems to be a longstanding practice in Cincinnati. There were supposedly chaperons present, one for every eight kids. But something went wrong. This underage child appears to have become intoxicated and aggressive. He did not fall over a structurally-impaired balcony, he allegedly fell leaning over the balcony arguing with kids in an adjacent room. As a St.X alum,and former teacher for 7 years at a SW Ohio Catholic school, I can say that alcohol is completely melded into the social culture of just about every Catholic school. 20 years ago, my parents were shocked/amused to see a keg at the beginning of the year parents night at St. X(I am actually Orthodox and didn't have any contact w/ Catholic schools per se until I went to X). That changed the next year, I believe,but things like this, and the fish fries, festivals, etc., illustrate the culture that these kids grow up in. Needless to say, underage drinking is rampant, and a significant %of parents take a very wink,wink attitude towards it-and don't necessarily have a lot of room to criticize w/ a straight face. The kids do take having a designated driver very seriously-but make it almost a point to brag about it. Bottom line, if SW Ohio Catholic kids lived in an area where 5 story balconies at parties were common, you would see a lot more tragedies like this.
The schools say the right things, and do what they can, but, ultimately, if they cracked down w/ an iron fist, the alumni and parent reaction would be severe-and donations,etc. would dry up very quickly.
Certainly, serious questions need to be asked. The end of any life at an age so full of promise needs to be understood. Who provided the alcohol to these underage minors? Where were the chaperons when this kid became drunk? Why were they not alerted to the potential problem as an argument escalated to this apparent magnitude? What can be learned to prevent similar occurrences in the future?
The St.X community is going to have some serious soul searching to do if arrests are made-I doubt it was a townie they slipped 20 bucks to buy a couple cases of Natty Light who takes the fall if something happens.
Many people here, me among them, would not have allowed their children to take this trip at this age, precisely because of what happens when teenage judgment, under-age intoxication, and unsupervised moments meet. But, that is not for us who were not in this situation to judge. We don't know these kids and the summarized allegations of a press report may not adequately describe what happened.
Like I said above about the wink wink thing, the parents from the Catholic schools are often "around" on these spring break trips-just another floor or a couple of condos over, and the parents chaperoning the kids are longtime family friends,if the not the parents of the students.
This is a time for thoughts and prayers for a family transiting a very dark time in their lives. Yes, I am praying for Matt and the St.Xavier community.
