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East Rowan High School student drowns in quarry, officials say

By DaShawn Brown, wsoctv.com
By DaShawn Brown, wsoctv.com

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. — A 16-year-old boy drowned in a Rowan County quarry on Sunday afternoon, officials said.

Witnesses said that the boy, Shavice Tandy, went under the water while trying to swim across the quarry and never resurfaced. He was last seen about 60 yards from the bank.

Emergency crews responded to the call of a reported drowning at the Balfour Quarry around 11:50 a.m.

After searching the water for nearly an hour-and-a-half, divers recovered Tandy's body.

Tandy lived in Granite Quarry, North Carolina, and was a student at East Rowan High School.

Area residents described the rock quarry as dangerous, with water up to 100-feet deep.

Several people told Channel 9 that the area has become a popular hangout for teenagers, and is on private property.

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Doug Patrick lives close by and says all summer long he has to report children sneaking into the quarry.
 
"Can't keep the children out of here and some grown-ups, and we run them out every day," Patrick said. 
 
Patrick said the quarry is unsupervised and lying below the surface of the water is jagged debris.
 
"You get hurt down there," he said. "You could have a lot of issues before you get out of there, if you didn't drown."
 
There is more than one quarry in Salisbury and residents said they take down license plate numbers when someone parks nearby to visit them, then reports them to deputies.
  
"You got 15 or 20 people watching these holes and trying to keep these children out and, they just, you can't guard them 24/7," Patrick said.
 
Residents said the Sheriff's Office is doing everything it can to prevent people from trespassing.

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