Parents meet after student dies at senior party

BRUNSWICK, Ga. – Brunswick parents and others were coming together Thursday to talk about the death of a Glynn County teen just hours before his high school graduation.

The meeting at Old City Hall on Newcastle Street was to talk about 18-year-old William Dalton Collins, who was found dead inside a beach house he and his friends rented in St. Simons Island.

They called it a "senior house," a tradition that goes back decades for graduates of Glynn Academy.

Investigators suspect Collins may have drunk too much alcohol.

Twelve of the 15 teens who were at the house were cited for underage drinking.

Trinity Vann went to Thursday night's meeting to hear neighbors concern over the dangers of senior beach house parties. Vann said these types of gatherings at the beach are a senior tradition and hard to pass up.

"I'm going to be honest, it really is because when you hear about it at school, 'Oh, such and such did this,' or, 'We were drinking and partying hard.'" said Vann.

Vann said she has never gone to one, but she hears the week-long senior getaway before graduation involves plenty of alcohol, drugs and sex.

"Some of the girls get very wasted, tend to do things they would not normally do," said Vann. "The guys tend to do things they would not normally do, like get girls topless."

The meeting Thursday was intended to be an effort to bring awareness to these types of parties before graduation, and offering solutions on how the community can tackle the issue.

"I have children. I have grandchildren," said Daryl Moore, who co-organized the meeting. "We're a community that has an issue, and I expect from this meeting tonight we'll come up with some kind of plan to make it safe for our kids."

"The only solution here is to stop this senior week. Stop these kids from going over on St. Simons and renting these houses, or wherever they happen to rent a house," co-organizer Danny Moore said. "Stop them from doing it, where they go pile in there, eight 10, 15 of them and they stay drunk all week long because somebody's buying them liquor. That's the only way to stop it. Make Glynn Academy and Brunswick High stop this."