(Image Source: Syracuse.com)
BY KERRY LEARY
ANCHOR CHRISTY LEWIS
You’re watching multisource news analysis from Newsy.
A 16-year-old is dead after his first varsity football game- and his mother found out about his passing on Facebook. WSYR has the story.
Reporter: A post on line was the first sign that something awful had happened to Jackie Barden’s son, Ridge.
Mother: "On Facebook, it was on the news. That's how I had to learn of my son's death," Barden said.
Reporter:Jackie spent three hours frantically trying to find out more, waiting for a school official to show-up at her door.
Mother: "Absolutely nothing. We waited all the way up until the next day and still got no phone calls," Barden said.
Ridge died within a few hours after a football game of a subdural hematoma, or a brain bleed. How why didn’t his mother get the news from school officials? CNN has more.
Holly Hughes: Well unfortunately this family had a divorce in it. And so the father was listed as the emergency contact...The father was notified and he did not pass on to anyone that mother should be notified. So of course, if she’s not an emergency contact, the school doesn’t know to call her.
Reporter: It can happen to so many people due to divorce, and the speed of which information travels now on the internet.”
Notification policies are strict because of student confidentiality but, unfortunately, they don’t apply to the internet and social media. Ridge’s mother had a message to everyone who participated in Ridge’s last football game, according to the Daily Mail.
“He just would not want those people to think that it was their fault. It was just an accident. Everything that Ridge did, he did with full gust. I'd say just take that attitude with you.”
Although Facebook was responsible for the notification of his death, ABC reports, it is now serving as a healing tool.
Reporter: “Dozens of shocked neighbors and teammates turned to memorial pages online- sharing grief and support."
Mother: “It helps to know that even though there’s a lot of bad out there, there’s still good- people do care about their neighbors.”
Ridge’s mother is calling on school districts and police departments across the state to take a look at their notification policies to fix situations similar to these in the future.
Transcript by Newsy
