[river rat]

I guess our schools were too busy teaching:
- how to put condoms on cucumbers,
- or that it's okay for Mary to have two moms,
- or all cultures are equal,
- or Islam is a "religion of peace",
- or no harm can come to one with "good intention"
- or whoring around as a drunken teenager is fun.....

Actions have CONSEQUENCES.... ALWAYS and INESCAPABLE...

I question the judgment of parents who agree to have their 18 year old daughters to go off shore for a wild blowout..

I also question the ethics and integrity of "chaperone's" that permitted one of their charges to go so far afield of the group.......alone with non-group members...


Semper Fi

[Churchillspirit]

Great post!

[WakeUpAndVote]

BINGO!

How about her so called friends? I heard on FNC that they stated she was in the bathroom having "trouble". I wonder what the "trouble" was? Too much to drink, or maybe the drinks weren't strong enough? Maybe her "trouble" was that she needed a little "boost" to keep the good times rolling.

I am more that sorry that this happened to her. She was only a kid and it is sad to see a life cut short. But to put things into perspective, how about a tox screen.

[Zechariah11]

Hopefully, principals, administrators, and parents around the country will think twice about scheduling "let's get drunk and get laid" graduation activities.

[saradippity]

Your post #93 says it all, except I do think she was only 17.

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

While this girl didn't deserve to die the night she was killed, I have to wonder just what the heck she was thinking about before each of the choices she made. What did the parents think when they permitted her to go? What did they prepare her for? Did they believe she'd be sunning or taking arts and crafts classes and drinking diet cokes? To have spent time and money planning a trip to an island where the drinking age is "legal," did that assuage any second thoughts in their minds? Because it was more of a "tourist brochure"-type destination, unlike crossing into Mexican cerveza & tequila territory, did that somehow make it much easier to send these graduates?

And after all this time, we are only now finding out that Miss Natalee *wasn't even* legal to drink in Aruba! Did the parents feel better knowing that their child was only going to be a few months shy of 18, rather than a few years here in the USA? For Pete's sake, she was still a child by definition, even on an island with looser drinking laws than the US.

I'd also like to learn more about the "chaperones" on this trip. I'm very curious to know where Natalee's was that night. Has anyone here heard anything about them? Did any of the chaperones consume *any* alcohol during the trip? Where were her friends? Were they prepared to be "adult-like" should a situation arise where one of the group was drunk and attempting to make life-changing decisions...especially with a threesome of the opposite sex in a foreign country?

This whole situation makes me sick. Sick-sick-sick. Things like this happen to parents who would rather be "friends" with their children/pretend adults rather than parent them as the Lord intended.

I am so, so sorry for this family and their loss and their grief. I am sorry for the decisions which led up to this; theirs, the chaperones' and all of her fellow graduates'. A week of playing adult, on an island which made it easier for these parents to give their blessings sure doesn't look quite as fun anymore, now does it? What kind of scrapbook does one buy to preserve memories like these?