Dear Editor:

Like many, I was shocked to hear about the passing of my good friend and paintball teammate, Alex Booth. What was a tragic accident has now turned into a political fiasco.

Blame is going in every direction – from the police, hospital, campus administration, and the DE. What people fail to realize is that the DE did a lot to protect the integrity of my friend. Reader comments were made on the DE Web site as to how Alex died. Ignorant people speculated a drug overdose. The comments infuriated me, all of Alex’s friends and teammates.

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The DE took these comments down. We now know that Alex died of a brain aneurysm, not an overdose. I want to thank the DE for removing the heinous comments made by people who did not even know Alex. The DE is not perfect, but what newspaper is? Mistakes were made on all sides, such as the picture on the front page, and no one notifying Alex’s parents. He passed away on school property in his residence hall; you cannot just have the medical personnel take away his body and then sweep away what happened under a rug. It is the school’s responsibility, and whatever rule that says it is not needs to be changed. Get on it Mr. President and Mr. Chancellor.

Aaron Ragusa

senior studying information systems and technologies