Wreaking Havoc on Spring Break

Deaths and riots mar the collegians' annual wingding

Every year just before Easter, they flock to Florida's beaches, hundreds of thousands of them, bikinis and libidos at the ready. After a week of the unimaginable and the unmentionable (to parents), spending up to $300 million on their bacchanal, they return to their college campuses, survivors of spring break. Says Dave Mazur, a Canisius College freshman: "Fort Lauderdale is like Mecca. You have to make the trip at least once. It's what everybody says it is --beaches, beer and bikinis . . . sand, surf and sex."

And tragedy too. Among the 800,000 reveling collegians who flocked to Fort Lauderdale,...

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