What's Going On?

The story that caught my attention this week is the tragedy of a high school student, Kendrick Johnson in Lowndes High School in Valdosto, Georgia being found dead  wrapped up in a wrestling mat and the authorities deemed his death an accident and did not process the gym as an accident scene. Now almost one year later, the family is being heard and are calling for FBI involvement and reopening the investigation. The family has had the young man's body exumed and evaluated by a pathologist who said the death was secondary to a "blow to the neck" the results of foul play.... possibly murder.

During a recent TV discussion, a commentator stated that "it has been a year since the incident and many students have been in and out of the gym so there is nothing to investigate."

I am at lost as to how the school moved on so quietly and without much concern. If I were a parent at this school, I would want answers to reassure me that my child was not in danger. How could the gym be used as usual when a teen had lost his life in unexplained circumstances?

The current outcry comes on the heels of Florida having a terrible track record for not seeming to value the life of Black Americans and now it seems that another southernn state, Georgia, is equally callous. 

Photographs of the gym taken just after the teen's body was removed showed blood on the wall and a tennis shoe left behind so there once was a CRIME scene that was not preserved or treated as such.

The family's trauma continued when they learned that their son's body was stuffed with newspaper and his internal organs were missing. Most states require permission and standard protocol for organ harvesting. Why was the teen's organs not returned to the body after the autopsy? Why was newspaper used to fill the body cavity? Is this common practice in Georgia?

Many are waiting for the FBI conclusions on this.