For several years I was a part of the annual festivus known as “Spring Break” down at Panama City Beach. Known as the “Redneck Riviera” for more years than I’ve been alive, it was something I and many of my friends always looked forward to.

Our band was the centerpiece entertainment on the beach for several years in the 1980s, setting up outside at the now-defunct Holloway House. We’d play to the open air of the beach and attracted hundreds of folks from up and down the shore to be a part of the fun. The crowds, almost exclusively made up of folks from around the South, were well behaved overall.

Heck, my mom even visited a couple of times.

Now, to be fair, if I said everyone who participated was angelic in their behavior, I’d be lying to you. To be sure, alcohol was always present. Lots of it. Not that everyone was drinking, mind you – I’ve never been a drinker and have always refused to do so entirely when playing my guitar (it’s hard enough for me to play decently totally sober, never made sense complicating things by injecting alcohol into the equation).

But for the most part, Spring Break was a communal celebration of youth with an overriding appreciation for fun up front and center, alongside a healthy respect for the beach itself. Almost all of my memories from it are positive.

However, in the years that have passed, clearly something has changed — and not for the better.

One thing that definitely changed was notoriety. What was a traditionally regional event went national and beyond in the 1990s when MTV started their “Spring Break” coverage from PCB. All of a sudden, you had folks from literally everywhere making their way into the mix, and the dynamic of the event changed along with it.

While spring break at Panama City always insured long traffic lines up and down Thomas Drive, it became so overloaded that things were totally gridlocked, making any kind of travel by anything other than bicycle or foot virtually impossible and exponentially unpleasant.

But aside from that, something in the soul of the event changed as well.

I remember after our performances there’d be scattered trash out on the sands of the beach – a beer can here, an empty chip bag or burger wrapper there. We’d always have a little crew of folks who would take a few minutes to clean up in the trash cans along the beach.

As the years have gone along, the sheer volume of trash left by the partiers has become absolutely atrocious. If images from this past spring break are any indication, an almost full layer of beer cans and garbage practically covered the beach – which means, of course, a significant portion of it ended up in the water.

And then there is the human trash, which was far more dangerous and repulsive.

Fox News sent a news crew to PCB disguised as music network videographers and captured more debauchery in one day than most would find believable, and all out in broad daylight to boot (just Google it to get a nauseating eye-full).

Violent crime ensued. This year, there were multiple shootings, one of which saw at least seven people wounded. In investigating one of the shootings, officials stumbled upon a cell phone video of a gang rape that occurred out on the beach in broad daylight in front of hundreds of people – none of whom lifted a finger to do anything other than video the event.

Bay County Sherriff Frank McKeithen said the video shows a 19-year-old victim, who appeared to be incapacitated, on a chair behind Spinnaker Beach Club when she was assaulted by multiple men.

“Within 10 feet from where this is happening, there are hundreds, hundreds of people standing there watching, looking, seeing, hearing what is going on, and yet our culture and our society and our young people have got to the point where obviously this is acceptable somewhere,” McKeithen said. “It’s probably one of the most disgusting, repulsive, sickening things that I have seen on Panama City Beach, and I have seen a lot of them. It’s not safe for our children to be out there on the beaches when these animals are here.”

The victim told investigators that she believes she may have been drugged and that she did not report the incident because she did not remember what happened. McKeithen is now convinced this scene was probably repeated numerous times over the last month, yet none have been voluntarily reported.

“You all need to wake up and see what’s going on,” McKeithen angrily said. “This is what we see everyday.”

Hitting far too close to home, one of the males arrested in the rape is from Bainbridge.

Even though officials have tried to throttle the problem, it is sadly simply larger than they can control. It has become a self-feeding monster.

I hate it, but I’ll say it. It’s time for us to bring the madness of Panama City Spring Break to a halt by staying away. Parents, if you allow your children to go into that snake pit then you are simply contributing to the problem. Teenagers, just remember, if you play with rattlesnakes, eventually you will get bitten.

Because in that game it’s not a question of if you’ll get bitten — it’s a matter of when.