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The Kitchen Table

Please watch your kids

15 years ago

Just heard on the news a young boy drowned in the river in Minot ND today, and his friend is in the hospital. Snow and ice on this river that goes thru town and what makes me angry, is the city has very little protection along it. No high fence and very little posting and it has claimed victims before. Not sure of any fence.

Near a trailer court. Hope to have more tomorrow.

Marie

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Comments (6)

casey_nfld
15 years ago
That's really horrible, I feel for the parents, I really do. But you can't expect every river to be fenced in, kids need to be taught to be safe around bodies of water, especially on thin ice.
wildchild
15 years ago
That is so sad. I was just about to say what Casey already said. People live near all sorts of bodies of water. It is unrealistic to expect nature to be fenced in to protect people from themselves.

These were middle-schoolers. Certainly old enough to have been taught to stay away from the river.
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jannie
15 years ago
My sister once fell through the ice on a local pond. A boy who lived near the pond pulled her out. And he was the school bully!
FlamingO in AR
15 years ago
We used to live along the Milwaukee river in WI and almost every year, a boy would drown from falling thru thin ice in the water or going over the little dam in the summer. It was always a boy, I guess they are more adventurous. Such a shame and so preventable.
mariend
Original Author
15 years ago
The problem with this is that this a river that meanders thru part of Minot, not a lake or large river. Dry spells, you can walk across parts, banks uneven, covered with brush, small trees, rocks, dirt, not maintained or cleaned, and we get alot of rain etc, it gets really deep in areas, To me it reminds me of the streams/rivers in the mountains where we use to live. That is why I think the city should make an effort to maintain it. There are parts the bushes are so bad that it is hard to even see it and the depths are very uneven. The city puts so call warnings in the paper occasionally but I think they should do more.
azzalea
15 years ago
What a shame. It makes little difference, what the age, I fear. My nephew was a junior in high school when a friend dropped his cell phone off a bridge, then ventured onto the ice (in the bay behind Atlantic City) to try to retrieve it. The boy drowned, and the friends with him were devastated to have seen that happen to their friend. They were all old enough to know better--but as children everywhere--somehow thought they were magically protected against death.

I don't know that it's possible to watch any child 24/7--but it is imperative that we TEACH them every second we have with them so that they're safer when we're not around

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