Giving Kids A Place To Grieve

This link takes you to a news story of a truly awful occurrence that I read about first in the New York Times yesterday, and it’s going to take a minute or two for me to make my point, but I feel like I should say something.

As noted in the story, police are still investigating the cause of a fatal two-car auto accident in Freehold, N.J. yesterday in which high school students Michael Dragonetti, 17, and his passengers, James Warnock, 17, and Andrew Lundy, 16, were killed; all three were from Freehold Township. Killed in the second car was Ruth MacArthur, 68 of Laurence Harbor, NJ. Police are still investigating the accident, but according to a preliminary investigation by Monmouth County prosecutor Luis A. Valentin, “excessive speed could have been a factor in the crash.”

It goes without saying that at a horrific time like this, it’s paramount to tend to the emotional needs of the immediate families and friends of the victims and provide for decent burials, as well as providing grief counseling for the friends of the high school students traumatized by this loss as well as those of Mrs. MacArthur (and of course, to allow police to complete the investigation and determine a cause). All of that is what truly matters the most.

However, the Times story notes that Andrew Lundy had a MySpace page where his friends left condolence messages to Lundy’s family and gave vent to their emotions.

And even though it’s mundane for me to think of this (hopefully not in bad taste), I couldn’t help but remember that idiotic MySpace bill that Mike Fitzpatrick managed to pass in the U.S. House that would have shut off access to these sites during school hours, and then I remembered that “that straight-talking maverick” St. John McCain has also proposed legislation aimed at community networking sites.

Yes, I know the purported goal of these bills is to cut off access to sexual predators. But suppose these bills had been signed into law and authorities believed that someone with a criminal record had accessed Lundy’s MySpace page, and it had been shut down before the kids had a chance to leave their condolence messages? Isn’t it more important to assist in the healing process for these kids than shut off the means to do that to try and nab an online predator who may or may not exist?

Update 1/18/07: And here, sadly, is another reason hitting much closer to home (our prayers and best wishes go to Ashley Zauflik and her family and friends).