Reading about what happened with those poor children yesterday made me remember when I was in secondary school and would play on the frozen lake on the way home in winter. I would only ever go where it was safe, where I knew it would only go up to my knees if the ice broke like my mother had taught me. We would also play in it in the summer so I knew the depth pretty well.
One time, when I was in the upper school, I was on the ice and I heard an almighty smack, then a crack. I turned and saw in the middle of the lake, which was over 2 meters deep, a girl from the lower school standing there with a log smashing it into the ice.
I screamed at her to stop, get off the ice, get over here! She walked towards me still smacking and cracking the ice, completely oblivious to the danger she was in. She stopped just beyond where it was safe to go, where it would come up to your chest, and just said "What?!" And wouldn't move. The ice was cracking behind her so I decided to go out there grab her and drag her back, told her off, and made her go home.
The next day at school I got pulled out of class into a room with the girl, her mum, my head of year, and the police. She had told them I had assaulted her and intimidated her on her way home, I told them what actually happened, that there were witnesses, and you can see where she broke the ice still.
I'm not exactly sure what happened to her after that, but because of that incident the police patrolled the lake every time it was frozen, we had to have safety assemblies on it, and I got made prefect.
I've never really thought about how she could have died until now. Or how others could have if this didn't happen. I know that sounds odd, I just remember at the time that it was dangerous but thinking at worst you would end up in hospital.
I feel weird about this