March 31, 2007|By Annie Linskey | Annie Linskey,Sun reporter
Kenneth's father said his son had been on two other camping trips with the class. "He enjoyed it," he said. The camping trips fostered father-son bonding - the elder Jones would talk to his son about survival skills he learned in the Marines. Kenneth, tall like his father, said he also wanted to join the military.
Family members called the boy "Knardie" - a play on his father's nickname, "Knard." He grew up hanging out at the Police Athletic League center in Brooklyn, and his first job was busing tables at City Lights, an Inner Harbor seafood restaurant.
At home, he was the family comedian, sometimes waking his siblings by tickling their ears with a feather or putting pepper under their noses.
Blake, his mother, recalled that he gobbled up noodles and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
"He was great," said Jones, the father. "[On] a scale of 1 to 10, he was a 13."
annie.linskey@baltsun.com
Sun reporter Doug Donovan contributed to this article.
The Victim
Kenneth Jones, 17, a 10th-grader, was on a camping trip organized by Independence School Local 1.
The Accident
West Virginia State Police say he jumped into a pool near a waterfall, drowning amid rough currents.
The Reaction
Relatives say they want answers. School officials say they have begun an internal review, and a city councilman says he might hold an investigative hearing.
