I used to think the Darwin Awards were funny, until someone I knew collected one a few years back.

He wasn't a close friend, but he was a good guy - highly intelligent, with a well-paid job, did a lot of volunteer work, didn't make trouble. It's just that one night he had a bit too much to drink and bet his friends he could climb down the inside of the garbage disposal chute in his high-rise apartment building. He died on the way to hospital in the wee hours of the morning.

When I saw my female boss break down and sob openly on the telephone, and then have to break the news to the rest of us, I decided the Darwin Awards weren't that funny after all.

There seem to be two lines of thought in this discussion. On the one hand, the kid is an idiot for not knowing any better. On the other hand, the parents were idiots for assuming he would know better. The danger is that those who assume the first explanation are in danger of assuming that *their* kids would, of course, react more intelligently, regardless of their level of training.

Hiding from rescuers is a very common reaction among lost children of a certain age group. Unfortunately, most parents - including, I suspect, those on this forum who are laying blame on either young master Hawkins or his parents - tend to assume that *their* children would react much more intelligently than other folks' in such a situation. Fortunately, most of those parents will never find out how wrong they are.