Part 4: The Much-Needed Conversation

Examples of NO regulation (and being told that’s how they want to keep it - I get it for adults, but not when kids are involved)

Longmont Times-Call Article: Sheriff’s office rules Longmont skydiving death an accident

Bus Driver punishment Judith article? PUll from here - not details, just the article maybe about her? https://www.karenrutherford.com/journal/2010/3/1/judith-van-meter-has-a-class-d-felony-and-steve-hall-is-wasa.html

In August 2007, a 63-year-old school bus driver in a suburb of Indianapolis left a 5-year-old child on the bus. The little girl slept for five hours before walking into school. She never expressed any fear and was fine. The driver was charged with Neglect of a Dependent, which is a Class D Felony. She was fired. Her license was revoked ending her long career. She was ordered to serve 100 days in jail (she was able to serve house arrest because she was the sole caretaker of her ailing parents) and was put on probation for an additional 445 days. She was also ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation and has to pay all fines and court costs.

In February 2005, an English teacher at Darlington School, a private school in Rome, Georgia, led an outdoor excursion during which he changed the course to one that required the kids to be in the ocean in kayaks and canoes. The only communication device was his personal cell phone, the water temperature was 58 degrees, numerous severe weather warnings had been issued, and he got not one parent’s permission. His decision killed two boys, Clay McKemie and Sean Wilkinson. Darlington’s attorneys showed up at the Florida church where families were awaiting word on the boys. Prosecutors decided not to prosecute.....

Two years later, Steve Hall’s teaching contract was not renewed (not because Darlington decided to do the right thing, but because parents demanded it). Still unable to find any friends his own age to play with, he went to work as the official Outdoor Recreation Coordinator for another private school in Utah called Wasatch Academy. He is still at Wasatch, and, just as he was at Darlington, is now advertised as an English teacher. In February, he is in the school’s Wasatch Wire newsletter’s “Faculty Spotlight” just in time for the school’s 2010 Family Weekend and the five-year anniversary of Clay and Sean’s deaths.

They can keep going, because there is no record, nothing required. (Though he was solely responsible for their deaths, not only did Hall not have his license revoked, but he has gone on to work for Wasatch Academy, a private boarding school in Mt. Pleasant, Utah, in an official capacity as Outdoor Recreation Coordinator.)      

1. How to research a person especially in this industry - is there a trip tracker? register?

   1. Trip tracker?

   2. Register?

   3. Certification list? Like a SoS or lawyer or finance advisor license?

      1. I tried - Story here. Who I contacted

   4. Nick, federal local regulations in other countries as an example.

      1. 1993 example of why they started regulating things.

      2. Federal, state, local regulations (lack thereof) in the USA.

      3. Continuing education? Certifications? What’s required?

   5. Repercussions, personal responsibility

      1. If no consent on a change of course.

      2. Equipment.

      3. Seriously, the Boy Scouts. How? Is there a model here?