Irish football recruit Matt James has died

[Blackhat]

Not even 18 yrs old.   Fell off a balcony while on spring break in Florida.

Can't possibly imagine how his family feels.

 May the lord be with you Matt.

[KipsBayEagle]

An extremely sad story.  I have to say this.  The parents were tremendously irresponsible for letting their son attend spring break in Panama city beach while still in high school.

[Blackhat]

I agree.

The prefrontal cortex of the human brain which controls judgement/rationality is still developing even into a person's early 20's.

I know I wasn't making sound judgements at 17 especially.    Barely better ones at 20.   

I wouldn't let my teen go unsupervised on a party trip.

Terrible loss,   makes me remember the Luke Homan loss.

[GGGG]

Was he unsupervised?  I know that a bunch of the teammates were down there together, but were there no parents?  Yeah, I must admit, as a parent of teen-age boys, I would pretty much not let that happen.

[chapman]

Was he unsupervised?  I know that a bunch of the teammates were down there together, but were there no parents?  Yeah, I must admit, as a parent of teen-age boys, I would pretty much not let that happen.

Apparently there were 40 high school seniors with six chaperones.  If they were taking a trip to the zoo it would be fine, but in a crowded spring break destination where alcohol is easier to find than water?  Very unfortunate.

[nyg]

Apparently there were 40 high school seniors with six chaperones.  If they were taking a trip to the zoo it would be fine, but in a crowded spring break destination where alcohol is easier to find than water?  Very unfortunate.

Now the police will conduct interviews and determine who bought the booze.  Then the criminal charges, then the civil charges........  It will only get uglier for the family.  Sad.

[drewm88]

It's quite common at St. X HS in Cincinnati for students to go down to Panama City Beach for their senior year Spring Break. So so so sad it eventually led to this.

[Tom Crean's Tanning Bed]

I'm 26 years old, and even 9-10 years ago when I was in HS, maybe I was just naive, but I NEVER remember any of my high school classmates (and I attended a fairly affluent private HS in Chicago) going on a Spring Break trip like this as HS seniors.  When I found out my then 17 year old cousin (now 18) was going to Mexico last spring break when he was a senior in HS, I was beside myself.  Is this a fairly new trend, or was I just in my own bizzaro world back in HS?

This is going to be a sticky legal mess that's going to tear that high school community apart with parents turning on parents, students turning on their friends, etc.  It's not going to get easier for anyone there, especially as criminal charges are filed and civil lawsuits are filed.  An awful situation for everyone involved.

[GGGG]

It's quite common at St. X HS in Cincinnati for students to go down to Panama City Beach for their senior year Spring Break. So so so sad it eventually led to this.

Is it common for them to get drunk and belligerent as well?  I mean, if this was some sort of annual tradition, I may have been fine with it as a parent but I would expect some supervision from the chaperones who went on the trip.  But then where were the parent chaperones?  Who bought the alcohol?

[MerrittsMustache]

I'm 26 years old, and even 9-10 years ago when I was in HS, maybe I was just naive, but I NEVER remember any of my high school classmates (and I attended a fairly affluent private HS in Chicago) going on a Spring Break trip like this as HS seniors.  When I found out my then 17 year old cousin (now 18) was going to Mexico last spring break when he was a senior in HS, I was beside myself.  Is this a fairly new trend, or was I just in my own bizzaro world back in HS?

I go back a little farther than you (I'm 29) but I also don't remember anyone from my HS going on Spring Break. I was discussing this with some friends/family over the weekend and none of them (age range 27-34) had any recollection of this type of thing when they where in HS either. Perhaps it's a new phenomenon from our impatient society.

Tremendously sad story nonetheless. I wish the best for his family.

[Aughnanure]

I think it depends on where you live. I'm from KC and senior spring break was a huge thing for most of the private schools in Kansas City, MO and the public ones in Kansas.

It was very common-kinda was like a known tradition as far back as 2001 that I knew of...in KC.