Oliver North speaks to Liberty University students

Lt. Col. Oliver North, USMC (Ret), addressed Wednesday’s Convocation gathering.... (photo, continue reading here)

Liberty University offers scholarship to Eagle Scout under fire

What is particularly surprising about this story is that it took place in North Carolina. Fox News reported:

A North Carolina Eagle Scout who was arrested and faces expulsion for accidentally leaving a shotgun in his pickup truck in the school parking lot has been offered a scholarship to attend Liberty University.

Political correctness run amuk?

Cole Withrow was just a few weeks from graduating with honors from Princeton High School when he was arrested on Monday and slapped with a felony weapons charge. Withrow had been skeet shooting with friends a day before and had only noticed he had left his shotgun in his truck as he reached to grab his book bag.

When he realized his mistake, he went to the front office and called his mother. An administrator overheard the conversation and called police.

The story went national ... so how did Lynchburg's Liberty University come into this?

Withrow was wearing a Liberty University tee shirt in the news story. Who should see it but Jerry Falwell Jr. himself, chancellor and president of Liberty University, who was in North Carolina and saw the story on the news ... complete with LU shirt. The rest, as they say, is history:

Falwell told Fox News that he made a few calls and discovered that Withrow’s sister is a Liberty graduate.

“I was really impressed with what a meek and humble Christian kid he is,” Falwell said. “I thought he would be a perfect fit at Liberty.”

So the chancellor made the 18-year-old an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“I told him that we would give him whatever scholarships he needed to attend Liberty University,” he said.

Falwell said the university is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure the teenager gets a college education.

“The anti-gun zealots seem to be vilifying him for making an honest mistake,” he told Fox News. “We want to reward him for trying to do the right thing.”

And that means even helping the young man finish his last few weeks of high school. Falwell said they offered to let him finish his high school work through their online academy.

Liberty's 100,000 on-campus and on-line students make it the largest Christian University in the world.

Background on the Federal Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994 (commonly known as Zero Tolerance):
- 'What's a zero tolerance policy?' 
- Information on state and local responsibilities

Liberty University student dies at Crabtree Falls - UPDATED

UPDATE #1: Nelson County officials have identified the Liberty University student who died at Crabtree Falls on Monday as Faith Helbig, 18, from New Jersey.

According to ABC-13:

[A Nelson County] deputy says a group of six LU students went to the top of the falls to take pictures, and a little before 6 p.m. one of them fell.

The deputy says the group crossed a barrier, and was standing on a part of the falls where they should not have been.

I cannot imagine losing a child. Prayers for Faith's family and friends as they face the days ahead.

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." --Isaiah 41:10

Update #2:  Reporter Steve Hardy with the Lynchburg News & Advance has photos and more about the dangerous conditions of this popular hike in his article, Crabtree Falls' beauty can be dangerous lure. I wish there never again had to be articles written about fatalities at the Falls....

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Crabtree Falls has claimed another victim. Late Monday afternoon an unidentified 18-year-old Liberty University student fell to her death on the treacherous falls. Authorities have not released her identity.

Monday was a beautiful spring day as five Liberty University students hiked the very popular Crabtree Falls trail in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Nelson County. The accident happened around 5 pm but an emergency phone call could not be sent until an hour later due to the lack of cell service in the vicinity, according to reporter Marcella Robertson with NBC-29.

Crabtree Falls, located off the Blue Ridge Parkway, is the highest vertical-drop cascading waterfall east of the Mississippi River and, sadly, one of the most dangerous. Its victims over the years have climbed onto the rocks that are deceptively slippery with moss and spray from the falls and slipped to their deaths.

This is the latest in a series of at least 28 deaths at the highest cascading falls east of the Mississippi. Tragedy has become an all-too familiar scene over the years, prompting the park service to post prominent warning signs along the trail for hikers:

DANGER. THE ROCKS ARE COVERED WITH A PLANT GROWTH THAT MAKES THEM EXTREMELY SLIPPERY. TWENTY-FIVE PEOPLE HAVE DIED WHILE CLIMBING ON THESE ROCKS. VIEW THE FALLS FROM DESIGNATED AREAS ONLY.

Fences act as barriers between the trail and the falls. Warnings are posted that hikers between 18 and 25 years old are most likely to fit the profile of those who have plunged to their deaths in the past.

Glenn Beck to address Liberty University graduation

The Washington Examiner is reporting that conservative radio and Fox News commentator Glenn Beck will deliver the commencement address at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, on May 15, 2010.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the announcement was made by Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr., who said:

“[Glenn] Beck is one of the few courageous voices in the national media standing up for the principles upon which this nation was founded.”

I'll bet that ends up being one powerful speech.