Norwich student killed in August 2003 car crash

[Admin]

Norwich student killed in car crash

August 4, 2003

(from the Top Story section)
By Sky Barsch

Times Argus Staff

NORTHFIELD – A Norwich University student and 2000 Northfield High School graduate died after her car hit a telephone pole Saturday.

Town police said they believe Rachael M. Priestly, 21, of Northfield was under the influence of alcohol when she hit the pole on Cox Brook Road just after 8 p.m.

Priestly, a civilian student about to enter her senior year at Norwich, was transported to Central Vermont Medical Center where she died of her injuries.

“We’re absolutely devastated and crushed by this tragedy,” said Norwich President Richard Schneider. “Rachael was a great student, she was very solid academically, she worked for Dr. Chan Stowell in student activities, and did great work with the yearbook. She was a senior, a local student, well-liked and this just is so painful.”

Northfield High School guidance counselor Reed Korrow described Priestly in the same manner.

“She was a nice person. … She was a pretty active student here,” Korrow said.

Two passengers, Leslie Santamore, 20, and Joseph Terpstra, 22, suffered injuries in the crash and were treated at Central Vermont Medical Center. Terpstra also is a Norwich student. They were both released according to a hospital spokeswoman.

[appaled]

"This is an unfathomable tragedy and the entire university community is grieving over this," said Norwich University President Richard Schneider.



The comment of President Snieder are appalling his leadership as a renaissance man are more akin to the renaissance of Machiavelli than DaVinci. Students live under the constant threat of discipline or non discipline, of rulings not rules and an attitude we can do what we want from the command staff. It is time for the Governor and the Attorney General to review and correct the problems at Norwich.

Specifically:
Norwich was aware of the problem of off campus drinking and of the party yet took no action, the number of text messages Emails and postings including team locker rooms. will confirm this. As members of the Vermont Militia the staff records of emails and text should be public record. The fact that a large number of cadets attended the party only compounds the seriousness of the issue.

Norwich has a set of written rules and unwritten codes that ignore military justice, common sense, and the Laws of Vermont last year when a cadet prevented someone from driving because he thought it was dangerous his Colonel characterized the action as a disgrace and when the student tried to invoke the protection of Vermont Good Samaritan Law he was told Vermont law doesn’t apply at Norwich. That is the attitude that prevails if a student addresses a dangerous situation they run the risk of being punished for making the school look bad rather than being commended for protecting a life.

To make matters worse some of the students had been drinking since a Friday night concert that included a bar at the Shapiro Field House, bars on a dry campus? They didn’t get drunk at the party the got to the party drunk.