By Lisa Walter

I would like to share what happened to my son, hoping it might save lives.

I never thought this could ever happen to my kid…but most of you probably have heard about what happened to my son at Frazier Mountain High School on Tuesday morning, May 29.

I received a phone call at 9:30 a.m. from Principal Dan Penner that my son had been drinking and that he was unresponsive and ‘could I please come to the school?’ I called my church and asked them to pray. While I was on my way to the school I heard sirens and called to ask if they called for paramedics and they said "yes."

When I arrived, the Kern County Fire Department EMTs were working on him.

I held his hand, which was cold, and told him to hang on and pray. As a parent I can’t even describe what I felt-shock, disbelief, wondering how, why and ‘is this really even happening?’

My faith was tested that morning, but I knew that Matt was in God’s hands and God was in control. The paramedics asked me lots of questions. The sheriff needed information while Hall Ambulance was preparing to transport him to Henry Mayo.

We were very lucky! Matt was given lots of fluids intravenously and blood tests were done to find the extent of the problem. He woke up around 3:00 p.m. and drank lots more water and was released by 4:00 p.m. He appears to have escaped permanent physical side affects. There are very serious consequences however that he is beginning to face. He has received a citation for public drunkenness from the sheriffs. He has been expelled from school for all of his sophomore year. He has lost all of his home privileges and possessions.

I am so thankful for everyone who helped and prayed for Matt. We received so many phone calls with comforting messages from friends, family and churches. I know good can come out of hard times, if you look for it. I experienced it last week. It reminded me of why we live here. I have cared about this community and all the kids in it for 11 years now, and I am not afraid to share my life and struggles with all of you because we all go through them somehow and we need to reach out to each other and encourage one another no matter what the circumstance.

That evening when we came home, I sent a text message to Matt’s friends listed in his phone book using his cell phone, it went something like this:

"Hey everyone, Matt is so lucky! He had really bad alcohol poisoning and he almost died! I hope you all know how serious it really was! If it wasn’t for Mr. Penner and all the prayers of his family and friends we all would be mourning him right now. I feel it was a wake up call for the whole school. If this happened someplace else he could have died. So I hope you all can learn from this and help each other to stop doing stupid things and start doing smart things and encourage each other to make better choices. I really care about all of you and can’t imagine having to prepare a memorial service for my son, let alone any of you. Please share this with the rest of Matt’s friends…Thx… Matt’s Mom… Lisa"

With all the news about teenagers dying from the results of drinking and the graduation parties that will be taking place this week, I hope this will make our young people think about what might happen and if it does happen to someone, hopefully their friends will take it seriously and help the person who is unconscious, because if you think it’s funny and the person dies, you will regret it forever. None of us would want you to have to live with that.

Parents, please talk to your kids about what happened and keep them informed so we can continue to enjoy them and they can continue to enjoy their lives without lifelong consequences. Thanks for reading this article. Please be a mentor to a young person in our community, because they need to know they are worth it!

This is part of the June 08, 2007 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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