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Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board
Re: Another tragedy of poor preparation?
Posted By: Karen Rutherford In Response To: Another tragedy of poor preparation? (Gary)
Date: Thursday, 21 August 2008, at 3:51 p.m.
Hi - (I may end up posting this twice - I think I put it in the wrong place the first time! Sorry!)
I know I'm really late to post, but I think it's worth discussing where the leader of the trip, Steve Hall, is now and how he got there.
Frankly, the man should have been prosecuted for criminal negligence. In any other town or without private school attorneys, he would have been.
Anything that happened after his decision to put other people's children in the ocean (which was not even on the trip itinerary and was done with no parental permission) doesn't even matter. It confirms his judgement was equal to that of a drunk driver, but he was wantonly and criminally negligent. And it wasn't the first time, but that's not for this thread.
The first to get to Florida were the school (who Hall's wife called 24 hours before anyone else) and the school's attorneys. Hall was sequestered away from the media and anyone involved. (He's a talker!)
In the Coast Guard report, Hall says the boys were "goofing around". No witness mentioned this. And it was the last statement he made - almost as an afterthought.
Two to four days (I can't remember the exact dates offhand but it's in the Rome News Tribune article listed), Hall was interviewed by a reporter about how much "fun" he was having coaching the girls' soccer team. People in the bleachers watching were actively discussing how odd his behavior was.
Hall never stopped any trips after this. Can you imagine this? If he was sufferering or traumatized in the slightest, wouldn't he have stopped for...oh, I don't know....maybe a month or so?
I don't know if people kept going on trips with him, but he never stopped soliciting for them. The only reason the Orr Treks Website was taken down TWO YEARS LATER was because the parents pleaded with Darlington, the school, to force him to.
Darlington did not renew Hall's contract in 2007, so he went to work as the OUTDOOR COORDINATOR for Wasatch Academy in Utah. He had a friend there named Gary Emmons from McCallie (a school in Chattanooga that Hall worked at before Darlington) who got him the job.
Letters and phone calls were made informing the Board and the Headmaster about the man they had hired to be in charge of kids (Wasatch REQUIRES 3 outdoor excursions of each student each year). No response, of course, other than a new release of liability form for parents to sign.
Hall has continued to lead trips at Wasatch. I've talked to a few kids who have some questionable experiences and encounters with Hall. He formed an official group called "Out and Beyond" at the school recently and had the audacity to announce its inaugural trip the month Clay McKemie and Sean Wilkinson (the two boys killed by Hall's actions) would have graduated high school.
I'm not sure YET if his contract has been renewed for another year. School starts back September 2nd, so I will have to wait to research. But so far, Wasatch doesn't seem to care that their boarding school students are in the wilderness with someone with a leader of this man's caliber. Not only do they not care, but they're going out of their way to make sure nobody talks about it. That is a crime in itself, but that's another thread.
I think that catches everyone up to date.
For more information, I've tried to put everything I know in one place so parents can get information (and my site says "freelance writer" but I work mostly for corporations and non-profits, so if you get there and would like to post an opinion, please do and thank you!):
http://www.karenrutherford.com/journal/category/questioning-steve-hall
I couldn't agree more that the solution is with the parents. But, when everyone shuts up for legal reasons, is intimidated by the schools their children attend to keep things quiet, it's impossible to get solid information.
Kudos to you for having a discussion thread about it at the time. And, even though it's 2008, I wanted to shed some light on Hall's suffering.
Thanks!!
Karen Rutherford
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