6 Ga. Counselors Charged in Teen's Death

[wakeme2008]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-State-Camp-Death.html

July 19, 2005
6 Ga. Counselors Charged in Teen's Death
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 8:34 a.m. ET

CLEVELAND, Ga. (AP) -- Six counselors at a state-run wilderness camp for troubled boys were charged with murder in the death of a 13-year-old boy with asthma who was restrained for more than an hour.

A White County grand jury handed up the charges of felony murder, child cruelty and involuntary manslaughter Monday.

..cut..

Parker had asthma and was denied his inhaler during the restraint. A medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.

..more at link....

:grr:

[Miss Chybil]

1. What a shame. Power hungry bastards.

I hope they felt big while they were killing this kid because they're going to feel really small in prison.

[Gildor Inglorion]

2. That's the SAME enlightened county

where the school board is going to ban all nonacademic clubs because a few students had the GALL to try to organized a gay-straight alliance club. OH, and they also produce the cabbage patch monstrosity dolls.

[Miss Chybil]

9. What's a cabbage patch monstrosity doll? nt

[Gildor Inglorion]

18. These thingies...

(I hope this works!)

[Miss Chybil]

21. Those are cute! Are they monstrosities because you don't like them,

or is there a backstory I should know about?

[Gildor Inglorion]

22. No...just my personal opinion

Maybe I should have said cute, cuddly monstrosities - not all that dissimilar to Barney the Purple Dinosaur

:evilgrin:

[GoneOffShore]

11. They're going to be spending some time

face down, I think.

[formercia]

3. State-run?

or is it outsourced? This sounds like a Straights operation.

[wakeme2008]

14. I looked all over and it does look

State run not so Fundie corp.. .

[mbperrin]

4. Hmmm....

" the boy had a history of asking for his inhaler when he was being restrained."

That might be because when you are tied up and thrown face down on the ground and sat upon, that you might have trouble breathing, especially if you had asthma...ya think?

Don't you hate the bastardization of the language? Restrained DOES sound nicer than tied like a hog and smashed face down by six much bigger than you people, though...

[prolesunited]

5. Just being under stress

can provoke an asthma attack. I guess they "cured" the kid, though. You can't make much trouble when you're dead. I hope they see the inside of a jail.

[Heddi]

6. At least he doesn't have asthma anymore

nor any of those pesky behavioural problems.... :eyes:

[SemperEadem]

7. I don't see the justification of their actions

Travis Parker died April 21, a day after he was held face down by counselors at the Appalachian Wilderness Camp in Cleveland, in the North Georgia mountains. The boy had angrily confronted one of the counselors for withholding food from him as punishment

snip

Authorities had said that counselors did not give him the inhaler because an emergency medical technician saw no indications such as wheezing that he was having an asthma attack and because the boy had a history of asking for his inhaler when he was being restrained.

Even with no history of asthma, one's breathing becomes rapid and shallow when placed in a highly stressful situation, like being restrained and held face down.

Seems to me these counselors took it upon themselves to teach this little boy a lesson. I'd like to know when the emergency medical techincian was called in exactly. Perhaps he saw no indications because the child was already dead? What his history was is irrelevant---allowing the child to suffocate in order to teach him a lesson is murder. They watched that child gasp for air and did nothing to help.

Granted, the kid had some problems, but I don't think that allowing him to suffocate was warranted.

[bleedingheart]

8. my son has asthma and doesn't wheeze when he is really bad

in fact, once he has a dose or two off the inhaler then...you will hear him wheeze...

[Enraged_Ape]

13. That's called "status asthmaticus"

When your bronchioles are so inflamed and constricted, that NO air flow takes place. Consequently, there is no wheezing. It is absolutely the most dangerous state for an asthmatic to be in.

Sounds like this kid went into that. Stupid camp counselors.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

10. This INFURIATES me

Reading this article, I flashed back to an experience I had at Boy's State.

I went to visit one of my friends in a different "county" (dorm floor) and was assailed and locked in a tiny janitor's closet for about 2 hours because I had broken one of their laws (walking on the wrong side of the hallway or some bullshit). I'm very claustrophobic and was literally freaking out by the time I was finally let out.

Complained, but to no avail. The old VFW guys running the show laughed at me. I have the utmost sympathy and empathy for this poor boy.

Boy's State was supposed to teach us about civics and governmental pride. I learned that there are a lot of power-hungry fucks in this country who will abuse any tiny power that they are given.

[Enraged_Ape]

15. A friend of mine was almost raped in the shower at Boys' State

many, many years ago. Some other guys entered the shower room in the nick of time and he was able to make a hasty exit.

I have since looked very much askance at the whole Boys' State thing. Perhaps that's unfair of me, but hearing your story makes me wonder if it doesn't really attract more unsavory, power-mad, fascistic individuals.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

16. That's awful

It's funny, I know several women who attended Girl's State, and they all had very positive things to say about it.

Boy's State was nightmarish, however. We were forced to march for several hours a day while grizzled vets chain-smoked and screamed at us. It was very much a sort of lite military, if you will.

I don't think it attracts those types, necessarily. (After all, the representatives from our high school were selected by the prinicpal and the guidance counselor, mainly based off of grades and test scores.) I just think that anything can happen when you place a bunch of 16-year old males in a setting like that with no controls and give them autonomy and absolute authority.

Look at Lord of the Flies or the simple proverb "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

[Enraged_Ape]

17. Or the Stanford Prison Experiment

Google it, if you're not familiar. Chilling.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

20. That's some freaky stuff

After reading that, it's surprising that events like Abu Ghraib and the Holocaust (the concentration camps, specifically) don't occur more frequently.

[wicket]

12. WTF?????

:grr: :grr: :grr:

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. What is an asthmatic kid

doing at a wilderness camp? Couldn't they come up with any other ideas for helping this troubled youth?