TAMPA, Florida. (AP) — The Coast Guard is searching the Gulf of Mexico for an 18-year-old from Louisiana who fell overboard from a cruise ship during a trip to celebrate his high school graduation.

The Coast Guard says Bruce O'Krepki went over the rails of the Carnival Fantasy on Sunday night about 150 miles southwest of Tampa. They say the search continued Tuesday.

O'Krepki recently graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Hammond, where he ran track and played soccer. He was with about 35 classmates on the ship. His uncle Rick O'Krepki said the teen's parents were among the chaperones on the cruise.

The ship had left New Orleans and was en route to Key West.