In March and April many schools have spring break. Many students take the break and go on vacations but do not think about the risk of just trying to have fun.
Whether staying local or traveling for the break, many people think that just being with a big group of people is safe, but that doesn’t mean anything. If someone turns away from the group for just 1 minute, everything can change.
An ABC news special on a Spring Break tragedy from 2010, shares the story of 17 year old Matt James, a Notre Dame football recruit, who was on vacation in Panama City Florida. He was staying on the fifth floor of a hotel with friends and their parents where he became belligerent drunk and fell over the balcony and died. Matt James and his friends were just trying to have fun on their spring break and wanted to live a little and experience life when everyone’s life had changed in just a few minutes. He was the 4th fall from a balcony in Panama City that year, and the second fatality from a balcony fall.
Spring break gives stressed out students a break finally, but too much freedom might allow them to abuse the things they use to alleviate said stress. The recent data from the National institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) suggests that almost half of all college students binge drink.
During spring break, one study done by the American College of Health concluded that the average male is reported drinking 18 drinks per day and the average female 10 per day during spring break, those are well above the safe levels of alcohol consumption. 1,825 college students who are within the ages of 18 and 24 die each school year from alcohol related unintentional injuries. One of the most important dangers being alcohol poisoning itself. Extremely high levels of alcohol reduce the automatic involuntary drive to breathe, so people with alcohol poisoning are at risk for death.
Furthermore alcohol can act like both a stimulant and a depressant. When college students drink they are temporarily feeling euphoric and happy. The feeling doesn’t last, so they are left with the depressive effects. The decision making skills of these students is impaired once the alcohol starts to work within 10 minutes which is what leads to getting into fights, trashing their own homes or other impulsive and reckless activity. This even applies to making unhealthy choices revolving around sex. More than 97,000 students who are within the age ranges of 18 to 24 are victims of alchohol related sexual assault or date rape. about 100,000 felt that they were too drunk to consent to the sex that they have.
