Private school mourns loss of two students in rowing expedition

<p>Friends and fellow students of two teenagers from the Darlington School who died in a canoe accident off the Florida coast gathered Monday to mourn the loss and support each other in a time of tragedy.</p><p>"Whenever tragedy touches our lives, our human response is to reach out to one another," said Jill Pate, the private school's director of personal counseling.</p><p>"It's impossible to make sense of something so nonsensical. You get through these sorts of things just by loving each other. It's what people do," Pate said at the gathering at the school's Morris Chapel.</p><p>The Coast Guard said the bodies of Clay McKemie of Rome and Sean Wilkinson of Acworth, both 14, were found Monday in the Gulf of Mexico, two days after they became separated from the others on a canoe and kayaking trip. Their canoe was found about five miles off the mouth of the Suwanee River.</p><p>Darlington, a 100-year-old coeducational, college prep and boarding school on 400 acres, is on spring break this week.</p><p>But that didn't stop students from coming to the service.</p><p>Lee Phillips, a junior from Chattanooga, Tenn., almost went on the camping trip, though he chose to visit with family instead. He lived in the same dormitory as Wilkinson.</p><p>"I always talked to him when he needed somebody," Phillips said after the gathering. "He was quiet, but he had a lot of friends. He lived life to the fullest."</p><p>Chris Tumblin of Rome, a freshman at Darlington, knew McKemie from childhood. The two had lived on the same street, Tumblin said.</p><p>"It's just not right what happened," Tumblin said. "They lived a fraction of what they should have."</p><p>Darlington's flag stood at half-staff Monday.</p><p>Both boys participated in Darlington's recent play, "Anything Goes," held at the Rome City Auditorium. They also were members of the school's Steel Drum Band. Wilkinson played the double tenor, McKemie the double seconds.</p><p>"Sean was interested in it after we did an exhibition for new parents," said Bill King, director of instrumental music. "Every free minute he had he was in the band room playing on them. He had really fallen in love with them and was really looking forward to starting on them after spring break."</p><p>James Hendrix, interim president of Darlington, said the students and staff were "feeling somewhat helpless and impotent because of the overpowering sadness. We're saddened beyond articulation," he said.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2865744)</p>