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School is out and vacation season is upon us. Vacations should
be a happy time for families to travel and see new sites, enjoy new
experiences, and build memories to last forever. I always enjoy hearing about
my students’ summer experiences each fall when school begins anew.
For one Nebraska family, their dream vacation at Disneyworld in
Orlando has turned into a nightmare that will haunt them with a lasting memory
of an experience I am sure they’d never imagined. At about 9:00pm last night,
the family’s two-year-old son “was attacked and dragged into the water by an
alligator”1 while playing on the shore of a lake at a Disney resort.
The father bravely jumped into the water in an effort to rescue
the boy from the alligator’s jaws, to no avail. Even the father’s adrenaline
fueled strength could not overcome the alligator’s crushing 2,000-pound force
bite2. I can only imagine the horror and helplessness the father
felt as he watched the alligator disappear into the water with the boy clenched
in its teeth.
Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies are using every available means
to find the alligator and recover the boy’s body. A number of alligators have
already been captured, killed, and examined to determine if they were the
culprits.
How could something like this happen? That is the question
everyone is trying to find the answer to today. In its 45 years in Orlando,
this is the first time an incident like this has occurred on Disney property.
Alligator attacks on humans, while good fodder for fiction writers, are rare,
and fatal attacks even more rare still.
According to an email from one resort employee who asked not to
be identified, the problem was just waiting to happen because of “guests on the
property feeding the alligators thinking it’s cool.”1 Though feeding
alligators is prohibited by the resorts, and illegal in the State of Florida,
tourists persist in doing it.
I listened to a news conference given by the Orange County
Sheriff this afternoon and was astounded by some of the inane questions the
reporters were asking. Even though there were signs all over warning people of
the presence of alligators, one reporter wanted to know why there wasn’t any
signage specifically warning that the alligators were dangerous. I’m surprised
the reporter didn’t ask why there weren’t signs telling the alligators to keep
out of the area.
The reporters seemed intent on removing all responsibility for
the attack from the alligator and placing the blame on Disney, Orange County,
Florida Wildlife Control, and the State of Florida, for not having enough signs
warning people there might be alligators in the area, and for not doing enough
to keep alligators out of the area.
One of the reporters even suggested underwater nets should have
been in place to keep the alligators out of the lake. The representative from
Florida Wildlife Control explained to this reporter that alligators can walk on
the ground as well as swim so such nets would serve no practical purpose.
That particular exchange, above all the others, reminded me of
something my father once said about reporters. My father worked in the newspaper
industry, on the business and accounting side, for twenty years. He held a very
low opinion of the common sense and intelligence of the average new reporter.
Listening to the press conference today, I can understand why.
Getting back to the devastated family. I cannot begin to imagine
the devastation they are feeling today, and the self-recrimination they must be
torturing themselves with. My heart breaks for them, and my prayers go out for
them.
And what must the people of Orlando be going through, suffering
three such horrible events in such a short space of time. The eyes of the world
are on you Orlando, but so are our prayers.
As always, I remain,
The Exhausted Educator
1.
Orlando Sentinel; Hayes, Allen, & Cherney;
June 15, 2016
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