Pupil to face charges after friend's death
By Heinz de Boer
A Durban schoolboy is facing charges of murder after the family of assault victim Shane McCarroll gave the go-ahead for his life support machines to be switched off on Tuesday morning.
McCarroll, a Grade 11 Durban High School (DHS), was put on the life support machines after he lost consciousness after a fight with a "bosom buddy".
A murder docket has been opened by Amanzimtoti detectives. Police changed the initial assault GBH docket to a murder investigation yesterday as tearful DHS pupils remembered their friend at an early morning memorial service at the school.
The investigation and subsequent tragedy stems from a fight between the two boys at a house party in Amanzimtoti at the weekend. McCarroll was allegedly punched three times by his 16-year-old friend, who has been described as a "bosom buddy". McCarroll lost consciousness the same evening and was declared brain dead by doctors after being admitted to St Augustine's Hospital's intensive care unit.
It is believed the family had been waiting for his sister to arrive from Johannesburg before saying goodbye to the teenager.
SAPS Superintendent Danelia Veldhuizen has confirmed the murder investigation, but said the 16-year-old boy was unlikely to be detained during the investigative stage because he is not considered a flight risk.
Speaking not long after the death, DHS headmaster Dave Magner said the school was strongly committed to offering support to McCarroll's traumatised friends.
"Our commitment is to continue helping them through the trauma and our thoughts and prayers are with family and friends," said Magner.
While conflicting statements continue to surround the issue of whether alcohol was freely available at the party, some of the city's top trauma doctors and educators have warned of the sometimes tragic dangers associated with teenagers at parties. A trauma doctor at St Augustine's Hospital, who did not want to be named, said statistics indicated the commonest cause of mortality among teenagers was accidents. In many cases, he said, alcohol played a contributing factor in their deaths.
"We frequently see teenagers aged between 16 and 21 who have been involved in high-speed car accidents who sustain massive head, chest or even neck injuries. Invariably they are not wearing seatbelts and alcohol is involved.
"We also commonly see young social violence victims, who have been injured due to inter-personal conflict at parties. Teenagers are at a stage where they like to experiment with things like alcohol. They need to be supervised as they do silly things like fall off balconies or climb into trees if there is alcohol involved," he said.
Dr Stuart Rose of Umhlanga Hospital's trauma unit said drunken teenagers who had lost consciousness were frequently brought into the unit by concerned parents or friends.
"It is a regular thing but is more of an end-of-term or December holidays phenomenon. In many cases the parents refuse to believe their children drink until blood tests show otherwise," said Rose.
Trevor Hall of Westville Boys' High School was one of the few headmasters willing to comment on the matter. He said the teaching profession had for many years been concerned with under-age drinking and welcomed the introduction of such topics into the new curriculum.
"The root cause of the problem in my opinion is that the use of alcohol is now so generally tolerated and expected at social events that this attitude then gets carried through to gatherings involving the youth. The consequences can be far reaching," he said.
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News Source : www.iol.co.za
