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School trip tragedy remains fresh :
Outward Bound death prompts safety measures
July 15, 2007
By Marie Szaniszlo
 The
door to Elisa Santry's bedroom was closed, as usual, its contents
largely untouched since the 16-year-old honor student headed off to
Utah last summer on a 22-day adventure through the desert.
"My mother still can't bring
herself to clear out my sister's room," her older brother, Steve
Woods, said Wednesday in their South Boston apartment. Nor can Elisa
Woods bring herself to talk about her daughter's death.
One year after Outward Bound
Wilderness instructors found Elisa Santry dead on the 16th day of a
22-day trek through Lockhart Canyon, nearly everything but her room,
it seems, has changed.
A MOTHER'S LOVE: Elisa Woods,
reflected
above in a mirror, has a mantelpiece shrine
in memory of her daughter, Elisa Santry,
who died on an Outward Bound trip a year ago.
Outward Bound Wilderness, the
adventure-education organization that led Elisa and a group of other
teenagers through the desert in 110-degree heat, has altered two of
its policies.
In an e-mail, Jennifer Sheehy, an
Outward Bound spokeswoman, said, "While we believe Elisa's death was
a tragic anomaly," the program now bars students from hiking in
temperatures above 100 degrees, and has stricter guidelines for when
it permits students to travel alone.
Elisa, a sheltered and gifted girl
on her first adventure away from home, had become separated from her
group while hiking.
The family's lawyer is in talks
with Outward Bound.
Also this year, Boston Public
Schools instructed headmasters to alert parents to the risks
inherent in certain programs, said schools spokesman Jonathan
Palumbo.
Summer Search, the
leadership-development program through which Elisa won a scholarship
to go to Utah, is still sending 175 students, including 55 from
Boston, on Outward Bound trips this summer.
"This is a very sad anniversary,"
said Summer Search CEO Jay Jacobs in a written statement. "Elisa was
an extraordinary young woman and the thoughts of the entire Summer
Search community go out to Elisa's family."
Since Elisa's death, the living
room has become a shrine to her mother's "miracle," her only girl
after two boys. Behind a cross on the mantel, Elisa's picture faces
a large board, made for her wake last July, with photos of her since
her birth and a timeline she had made listing some of the milestones
in her life: learning to talk at age 1, learning to swim at 6,
camping in Maine at 13. There, the timeline ends.
Elisa's family will gather at an 8
a.m. Mass in her memory today at St. Brigid's Church in South
Boston.
"The family plans to start a
scholarship in her honor for next year, the year she would have
graduated," Palumbo said. Donations to the fund can be sent to Mount
Washington Bank, 708 E. Broadway, South Boston, MA 02127.
-
mszaniszlo@bostonherald.com
(The following correction was
published on Page 2 of the July 18, 2007 Boston Herald: "Elisa
Santry, the 16-year-old South Boston honor student who died on an
Outward Bound Wilderness trip last July, has three brothers. The
number of siblings was misreported in Sunday's Herald. Also, a
scholarship fund was set up in her memory last year at Mount
Washington Bank.")
CAPTION: STAFF PHOTO BY MIKE
ADASKAVEG
Credit: By MARIE SZANISZLO
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