3 Chicago teens drown during leadership retreat | National news | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
ALGONQUIN, Ill. — Three Chicago teens who apparently sneaked away from a school-sponsored camp retreat to paddle along a nearby river drowned early Friday. Their paddle boats — missing floor plugs already removed for the winter — quickly took on water and sank.
Chaperones at the leadership retreat were likely asleep when a group of students launched four or five paddle boats into the Fox River, said John Greene, battalion chief of the Algonquin-Lake in the Hills Fire Protection District.
It was not clear how many teens ended up in the water.
"Shenanigans," Greene said. "That's what it looks like."
McHenry County coroner's office identified one of the students as 17-year-old Melvin Choice. Authorities have not released the identities of the other two.
Two of the boys were seniors and one was a junior at North Lawndale College Prep, a charter school on Chicago's West Side, said Julie Didier, a spokeswoman for the fire protection district.
Police responded at 2 a.m. to a 911 call that three teens were reported missing.
Authorities said after one boat quickly took on water, two boys on the shore went into the river to try to rescue a student, but soon they too went missing.
Robert Williams said his son was on the shore and unsuccessfully tried to swim toward the boys.
"He did all he could to try to save them, but he couldn't do it," Williams said.
The boats on the river were taken out of service for the season by having their bottom plugs removed, Didier said.
A total of 31 students were participating in the eight-day retreat at Camp Algonquin that was to end Friday. Officials say there were four chaperones, all of them teachers from North Lawndale, which has not responded to telephone calls for comment.
