I hear what you’re saying. A couple of years ago our police force announced they would no longer use the phrase ‘drunk driving accident’. Their reason was they thought it a misnomer, and wished to change how society viewed such incidents. Certain dangerous driving incidents also qualified. They basically wanted us to know that they didn’t view drunk driving as an accident, but as a choice!
At a nearby uni, some resident boys were taken to doing chin ups on the exterior lintel. Then in pairs, etc. It turns out, it was more decorative than structural, gives way under the weight and stress, almost kills one boy and another suffers life altering brain injuries. Accident? I’m not sure that’s the right word. Tragic? Certainly.
That’s the point. We either call it an accident or a suicide. At no point, is anyone going to go out of their way to say that someone died because they are an idiot. The reason being that it will only cause problems for those who are grieving their loss.
If I should ever die in such a ridiculous manner, I grant you all permission to call me the biggest idiot who ever walked the earth. My grieving loved ones, should there be any, will understand.
Sorry, but I don’t consider a solution that involves that much collateral damage “elegant”. If you could isolate the immature driver from the grownups and let the teens just deal with each other instead of endangering everyone else on the road, it would work a lot better.
I’m still wondering how half the folks in this thread are using the word “accident” such that accidents and stupidity are mutually exclusive. An accident is nothing more than an unintended result, with a somewhat negative connotation. By my count, stupidity is the leading cause of accidents worldwide.
He’s 16 and just finished 9th grade? Something’s wrong here.
I have a very dim view of HS football players anyway; it’s usually not something a parent should be proud of, and the Steubenville incident didn’t just happen there. It happened at my high school, more than 30 years ago. No, we didn’t have iPhones and You Tube, but there were Polaroids, and even if half the city’s police force had witnessed this, nobody would have gotten in trouble.
I bet a lot of kids are secretly, or not so secretly, glad he’s gone.
Several years ago, a boy who had lettered in 4 sports committed suicide, and the news reporters showed up at the school to interview the “grief stricken student body”, and several girls said live on camera, in so many words, that he was not going to be missed.
That means he was one year behind. It isn’t that big of a deal. If he has a birthday in September he may have started late as far back as kindergarten. Jesus, some of you nerds were so terrorized in HS that y’all are glad a kid accidentally hanged himself just so now you can project your HS fantasies about killing the popular jocks on some kid you know nothing about. Pathetic.
