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VOLUME 115, ISSUE 2 ONE YEAR AFTER A TRAGEDY Accident at Stacy left lasting mark BY ERIN ZUREICK UNIVERSITY EDITOR It’s been a year, and Keith Shawn Smith’s room in his Greensboro home remains largely untouched. It’s one of the few things that Gloria Smith said hasn’t changed since her son’s death a year ago on UNC’s campus. Altering Keith Shawn Smith’s room is too difficult a task to tackle yet, she said Friday in Greensboro, a day before the one-year anniver sary of her son’s death. The pictures show what Gloria Smith described as her son’s trade mark his “Kool-Aid smile” and the signs of his bright future. “It’s just hard,” she said. “I packed them up for another time.” 'Keepin' it movin'* A year ago UNC students Keith Shawn Smith and Tyler Downey were racing down the third-floor hallway of Stacy Residence Hall and crashed through a window, falling more than 30 feet. Remember Keith for his life, not his death Ut Tbu remember Keith V Shawn Smith?” I often -L ask people. “Who?” they almost always reply. “The kid who fell from the third floor of Stacy Haft and died last year.” “Oh, yeah. That was so tragic.” You know, Keith’s death is not the real tragedy. But people know him because of how he died, and not because of how he lived. And that’s tragic enough to make Shakespeare weep. I never regretted living on the third floor of Stacy Hall. Only boys lived in Stacy, and my resi dent adviser perished from racing down our hallway and straight through a terribly designed win- Stacy Residence Hall accident aftermath Feb. 24,2006 Two UNC students crash through a third-story window of Stacy Residence Hall, sending freshman Tyler Downey to the hospital with critical injuries and taking the life of resident adviser Keith Shawn Smith. March 2,2006 More than 400 people clad in red take part in a vigil to celebrate the life of Smith. Slideshows, personal poetry readings, song, spoken letters and humorous recollections are shared by those who knew Smith. Dance Marathon sets record BY CLINT JOHNSON ASSISTANT FEATURES EDITOR They were trying their best not to collapse. More than 500 students moved to the beat ofN Sync’s “Bye Bye Bye,” but they were a step slow, and the scene looked more like a hyperactive Generation X con cert than a school dance. Online I dailytarheel.com MANAGING TO SERVE Chapel Hill will give first award honoring former manager A NEW LOE? Speaker at Enloe High School hands out anti'Muslim material NEWS CONSUMERS Media giant Gannett buys another student newspaper Serving the students and the University community since 1893 ®ltr Satin ®ar Mrrl ATTEND THE BENEFIT Time: 7 p.m. today Location: Union Auditorium Info: Tickets $5 in advance, $6 at the door What has been described as a freak accident drugs or alcohol weren’t involved early that Friday sent then-freshman Downey to the hospital with critical injuries and took the life of sophomore Keith Shawn Smith. Those who knew the sophomore resident adviser have coped with the loss in their own ways. But Keith Shawn Smith’s impact is undeniable. His friends, fam ily and acquaintances speak of his determination, his loyalty and his ability to bring out the best in oth ers. “He was definitely the hardest worker I knew,” said L’Oreal Neal, a UNC junior who dated Keith Shawn Smith since October 2003 their senior year at Ben L. Smith SEE ANNIVERSARY, PAGE 5 SAM ROSENTHAL STACY RESIDENCE HAU ROOM 319,200*06 dow, but I’m thrilled I lived there. Why? Because I knew Keith Shawn Smith. See, Keith was not “the kid who fell.” Au contraire he was the man who rose. I say that he rose because Keith overcame great odds to wind up at UNC. Hailing from a SEE SMITH, PAGE 5 March 3, 2006 Downey is released from the hospital. He returns to Asheville to recuperate and withdraws from UNC for the semester. April 20, 2006 A benefit show is held by the Keith Shawn Smith Memorial Fund to help raise money for the family to help pay for funeral costs and medical expenses. The event's theme, 'Keepin' it Movin',” was Smith's favorite motto. For a full-color page of coverage from the UNC Dance Marathon, see page 11. These were the waning moments of the UNC Dance Marathon an annual celebration that marks the end of a year of fundraising. Starting at 7 P-m. Friday, the 674 dancers had to stay on their feet for 24 hours. The event, which took place in Fetzer Gym, raised $236,876.12 an all-time high for the marathon. The money will go to the For the Kids Fund, which distributes funds to benefit children and families at the N.C. Children’s Hospital. arts | page 7 ACTING YOUNG Play Makers Repertory Company and the Carrboro Arts Center partner up and give children the chance to shine in "Oliver!" during weekend auditions. www.dailytarheel.com —■6 i J H m 1 4 DTH/LAUREN COWART Gloria Smith, mother of the late UNC sophomore and Stacy resident adviser Keith Shawn Smith, sits at Kids Inc., the Greensboro day care center where she works. Smith has left her son's Greensboro room intact and is still struggling with his death one year after his tragic fall from Stacy. Officials review window safety in wake of accident Campus installs bars in 40 buildings BYASHLEE SADLER STAFF WRITER Since two students crashed through the window of thefr resi dence hall last year, UNC officials have taken extra steps to ensure the safety of windows across campus. Sophomore resident adviser Keith Shawn Smith and then freshman Tyler Downey were rac ing down the third-floor hallway of “I think people really feel con nected to the cause,” said senior Erica Newman, the marathon’s overall coordinator. “It’s a symbolic show of support for the hospital.” The money is used to pay for expenses not covered by insur ance or Medicaid, such as electric bills, mortgage payments and car repairs. UNC has held the dance mara thon since 1999 and raised almost $1.3 million. - Stacy Residence Hall in the early morning hours of Feb. 24, 2006, when they broke through a win dow and fell more than 30 feet. Smith did not survive the fall, and Downey was in the hospital for sev eral days with broken vertebrae. The fall was called a tragedy and ruled an accident by UNC officials. But it left many wondering how something like this could happen Despite its name, the mara thon involved more than dancing. Students also could play basket ball, play four square or read mag azines. The only requirement was that they remain standing. The event was open to visitors. Families and friends were allowed to stand behind a separation wall in the middle of one of the two gyms. SEE MARATHON, PAGE 5 SportS | page 14 HOOPS TEAMS GET FACED Both the men's and women's basketball teams fell to conference foes Sunday. We've got coverage from College Park, Md., and Durham. on campus and if it could have been prevented. Larry Hicks, director of the Department of Housing and Residential Education, said hous ing and other departments began looking at all windows on campus immediately after the accident. “We looked at two baseline cri teria, whether students could gain momentum and the height of the window,” Hicks said. The housing department, with help from the Department of l&ij.- -j’-i . J—|„ JB4 DTH/MELISSA WILLIAMSON Dancers embrace and sway to "Lean on Me” late Saturday afternoon after all moving into one room to celebrate in the last hour of the event. this day in history FEB. 26,2003 ... Fred Eshelman of Wilmington commits S2O million to the UNC School of Pharmacy the largest gift ever to a U.S. pharmacy school. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2007 Environment, Health and Safety, determined that for a similar acci dent to happen, the window would need to be less than 3 feet high. About 100 windows that met this description were identified in 40 buildings, and now a project is under way to install bars over win dows that didn’t meet the height requirement, Hicks said. More than half of the identified windows including those at Stacy, which SEE WINDOWS, PAGE 5 weather Pally ii v Cloudy H 59,136 index police log 2 calendar 2 games 6 opinion 9 sports 14
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