QUOTE(DrifeterDude13 @ Mar 15 2007, 07:50 AM)
All i'm going to say about my friend Andre is he's been shown an unbelievable amount of disrespect. He died. It's confusing and complicated as hell to figure out how or why he died. But he sure as hell would'nt want a bunch of old farts who didn't know him, gossip about his death on websites. I understand people feel sorry and just want to discuss things to clear stuff up, but in Folsom, stuff will never be cleared up. Every citizen, whether they say they do or not, is obsessed with drama.
I've been at the park for the last 2 and a half days and yes, the police (even after the autopsy) say it was an accidental death. Does anyone buy that? No. Do we have to right now? Yes. EVERYONE knows Andre would not kill himself, yet the first news stories out contained suicide was the cause of death. Extreme dishonor. THEN, second and more-heard news stories: autorotica. Everyone keeps hearing the word, and to sum it up in a crude way: getting your jollies off by causing yourself pain or doing something that could kill you and ending before it goes too far. That sounds like a perfect coverup for a story of a teenager in a tree. A teenager who has happy, had no enemies,.. and yet was tied up and strung up 15 feet up in a tree.
Andre Anderson did not do this to himself. That is all we know. The police and news say he did. The Folsom Police Department and News10 as well as CBS13 and KCRA3 all acted with ignorance, intentional invasion of privacy, disregard for people's emotions and feelings, and just plain rudeness on the day he died. The FPD as much as everyone says "they know that they are doing".. i will not say what i saw or heard when i was with them, all i will say is this:
Do NOT for a SECOND, think that the Folsom Police have it all under control. They should know that they are doing. They should know how to handle this situation. I won't say what they said or did to prove to evryone there that they messed up, i'm just going to say that they DID mess up, and bad.
I know all of this is getting all you people excited, so i'm not going to say "stop talking about it", because we all know this town is too ignorant. I love Folsom, as much as all the teenagers say it sucks, we still love it. But everyone needs to realize.. it ain't Pleasantville. Life stil happens in folsom. When you pass that big Welcome to Folsom sign? Drugs don't disappear. Rapes don't disappear. Murder doesn't disappear.
Rest in Paradise Andre, and i'm so, SO sorry that people have to be this low.
DrifterDude - Firstly, calling people here on this forum (or anyone over the age of 18, which I am sure you are referring to) "old farts" is disrespectful although I choose to believe you meant no disrespect. Remember this one thing: Adults in your life are the ones who have either completed half of their journey or are already in the second half. Life is a journey, and those who have gone before you have gained knowledge and wisdom - listen to them - they are very wise. Learn how to recognize the words of wisdom - sort if out. You, now, are only laying the foundation of your journey - so you haven't even begun, little one.
It may be true that people are drawn into drama. But, obsessed with it, I am not sure. It is understandable, though, if people are "obsessed" with drama as drama is part of our culture in today's world. We have drama thrown into our faces every single moment of our lives. We, as parents, are fearful in today's society - fearful for our chldren and have to make choices everyday on how to teach our children. I do not believe that people on this forum are gossiping - they are afraid - afraid for their own children and sometimes fear breeds ignorance. Enough said here about this.
As for Andre's death, we won't know until the investigation is complete what occurred. However, the consensus seems to be that it was the "choking game" or "autoerotic asphyixiation (sp?)". One can Google this important subject and learn about it. There is also a government website on this growing problem - however, it appears to have been around since the 1600's. Quite interesting.
The important thing here, whether or not it was the choking game, is to learn from this tragedy, just as Andre's parents said on T.V.
This game and the death of a child happened closer to home than many of you may know. It happened in Paradise, CA (a town outside of Chico) in August of 2005. It was a story on CNN and I remember it quite well. Here is the link about the story:
http://www.cnn.com/2...9/choking.game/ I remember approaching my daughter at the time (she was 17) and discussing it with her - asking her if she knew about this game; telling her the story; educating her. I posted here the other day - we should not hide these things from our children - we need to educate them to prepare them for life. So, this is the difficulty of raising kids today - we have to listen, research and teach - a tough job in a busy, busy world. All of our kids should have known about this choking game long before this - just from hearing about the tragedy in Paradise.
According to the research that I did on "the choking game", it is apparently a game that quite often is "played" (for lack of a better word) by well-rounded, "good" kids, even high achievers. They are kids who don't do drugs, don't drink, don't smoke and make good grades. They themselves justify this game and say "I don't do drugs, I don't smoke, I don't drink, etc." Kids think they are infallible - we, as adults know this - we've been there before.
Many credible websites, including government websites, say the schools. as well, need to educate our kids on this subject. The death of one child is one death too many. Someone here said something to the effect of "is this a problem in our community?" Now it is a problem because the community has lost an innocent child in a tragic death. We need to educate our kids and we need to make sure the schools also educate our children. It is their responsiblity - education goes beyond reading, writing and arithmetic. This game is not played by just teenagers - younger kids, often the siblings of teens, are playing this game as well.
In ending, we must wait and be patient for the actual causes of Andre's death, although taking about it is something that we, as human beings, need to do; we must all also speak to our children about the the choking game and educate them.
Once again, as I posted before, I am praying for strength for Andre's parents, family and friends.
