<p>There are two or three threads each year involving incidents like this. I usually just read them and move on. This time was different. This time, it slowly dawned on me that I used to know this family. They lived in NYC before they moved to suburbia shortly after Matthew was born. I haven’t seen the family since then. I’m not trying to imply we were close friends, but I knew his mom and saw enough of her with her kids to know that she was a warm, loving mother. I can’t imagine her pain. </p>
<p>I’ve read about the Red Watch Band program she’s started. Why don’t those on this board who have children in college push to have their colleges start such a program? Would each and every parent on the board who takes a college tour or goes to an information session agree to ask if the college has a Red Watch Band program and whether it offers amnesty to students?</p>
<p>College students NEED to know what to do if someone becomes intoxicated and loses consciousness. Certainly every RA or the equivalent at each college NEEDS to know what to do. (The articles about Matthew’s death are unclear, but it sounds as if at least one student did tell the RA that the kid was unconscious. )</p>
<p>Colleges NEED to view this as a medical emergency and grant amnesty to the student who is put into that ambulance and the students who call for it. No kid should ever be in the position of thinking “Well, Dan or Danielle will probably be all right…and if I call the ambulance and he/she gets in trouble, he/she is going to be really angry at me” or “I’ve had a few beers myself–what if the cops come when I call 911 and arrest me for underage drinking?” </p>
<p>To be truthful, I didn’t realize that not all colleges offered amnesty. I took it for granted that they did. IMO, it’s INSANE not to do so. And the idea that a kid who has had a few drinks and calls for an ambulance for a kid who has had so many he’s lost consciousness can be disciplined while a kid who walks away and lets another kid DIE gets off scott free is insane. </p>
<p>So, start asking questions. If colleges learn that in choosing where your child will attend college, the existence of the Red Watch Band or similar program will be a factor in your decision, maybe something can be done. </p>
<p>Red Watch Band is NOT about educating kids about the evils of alcohol. It’s about knowing what to do if someone has way too much to drink.</p>
<p>Please don’t tell me that this will encourage drinking. I can’t believe it will. And I’d never want my own kid to be the one who was worried about a friend but decided not to get help or simply put him/her to be to “sleep it off” --and learned later that the friend had died.</p>