11/16/14 4:16pm
| By Editorial Board
, Editorial Board
Nolan Burch, a Canisius High School graduate who turned 18 earlier this month, was a ?sweet, wonderful kid,? who was well liked and popular among his classmates.
Although that?s how Burch?s family and friends will remember him, it?s not how Burch will be memorialized in the media and the public eye.
Because Burch, who died after drinking large quantities of liquor at a West Virginia University frat party, is the newest face of an extremely troubling trend that has cost too many young lives ? so many that Burch is not the first, but only the latest college student to represent the dangers of extreme drinking on college campuses.
According to individuals present at the party where Burch fell unconscious and collapsed, the teenager was challenged to consume excessive amounts of alcohol, to the point that when police and EMTs arrived to the fraternity, he was unresponsive, had no pulse and died 36 hours later.
Burch?s death serves as reminder of the dangers that can accompany extreme underage drinking ? especially for new college students, recently arrived to campus and unfamiliar to the party scene, but eager to change that.
Drinking and partying is undeniably an aspect of many college students? lives. read more >>