SURVENT

In the news on July 10, 2006:

Five youngsters drowned during a church outing after one became caught in a river's undertow and the others jumped in to help, authorities said Monday. A sixth child was rescued and hospitalized.

The six were part of a group of about 50 youngsters with the St. Louis Dream Center, an interdenominational church that was celebrating a volunteer appreciation day with a barbecue and swimming at Castlewood State Park southwest of St. Louis.

Witnesses said the children -- ages 9 to 15 -- were swept away after they stopped to play in the Meramec River Sunday evening, said Tracy Panus, a spokeswoman for St. Louis County police. [CNN]

These kids were partaking in a volunteer appreciation day celebration, which is great. My question is, where were the volunteers to watch these kids? I bet they sure would have appreciated their help that horrible day. Why were there no adults in the immediate area that the children were playing? Even though there were some 15 year olds involved, adults should have been supervising them.

I have an issue with the following statement from Tracy Panus as quotedin the article:

Rescue workers were hampered by inconsistent reports about how many children were attending the event and how many were missing, Panus said.

Why was this so poorly planned and so unsupervised that you could not know how mamy children were attending the event? And parents were not even there from the sounds of it as the group was made up of "about 50 youngsters" per the article. What is it with parents today that they haphazardly allow their children to go places with such poor supervision? The parents should have been involved or the even should have been held somewhere safer, like at Chucky Cheese.

What happened is horrible and I hope that people will learn from the errors of these volunteers and parents and protect their children better. Unfortunately, people will not learn from this type of event which is why these things happen day in and day out in this country and all over the world. It is not up to someone else to protect your children as most of society somehow seems to think. Please ask questions about where your children are going, who will be there, who will be watching them, plans for an emergency, etc.