This is a really sad story that is getting coverage here in the PNW. There is a petition to require the college to add safety features to the dorm windows and a GoFundMe to cover the kid’s medical expenses.
I am sincerely torn about this type of situation. I honestly can’t say if it were my kid, whether I would advocate for safer windows or not. I am sympathetic to the bed rails argument, so I’m not really sure why I feel differently about windows.
These are college students, not toddlers. I don’t feel like colleges need to safety proof their campuses with drunk people in mind.
I have mixed feelings too. The difference is…all houses have windows…right? But lots of kids never sleep in a lofted or bunked bed until college.
There is a difference.
It’s a terrible situation…and I hope the best for recovery for this young man.
I had a roommate who was inebriated and the window in the stairway was a clear attractive nuisance for his fist. None of us thought the university should have installed fist-proof windows unfortunate situation, but people have to have some responsibility.
In many cases, they have windows that are never opened because either the heat or the air conditioning is on year-round.
But some college dorms are not air conditioned. The windows may be open, at least during the first few weeks of the school year.
Strange as it may sound, college students may not understand safety around open windows because they’ve never faced the situation before.
Here’s the only line that has me NOT jumping on the bandwagon: " Police determined alcohol was not a factor in that incident."
I don’t know. If a kid who is sober can fall from an 11 story window, maybe there’s an issue in this particular dorm.
In general, I don’t think we should “drunk proof” dorms… a kid who is drunk can find a million ways to injure or kill himself. At some point, personal responsibility comes in.
But this kid wasn’t drunk.
So maybe it’s worth looking into. Maybe not. But he and his parents have my sincere sympathies and prayers.
This was the SECOND kid to fall out of a window at the university. No alcohol involved in the first one which was from 11 stories.
Can’t find a picture but it sounds like a built in window seat with windows that open level to the seat… If the father warned his kid not to fall out the window when he saw the room then it was a foreseeable situation. Sounds like there should be some sort of rail guard.
From the linked article, it is really hard to have an educated response to this. The video of the news story shows a picture of a dorm room where there is no more risk of falling out of a window than in any normal home, but there is not guarantee this is the actual room. The police say that alcohol was involved, but we don’t know if he was hanging out of the window, horseplaying, or if the window was in fact dangerous and he just stumbled in the room and fell out. I hate that our litigious culture absolves all personal responsibility, even during illegal activities like underage drinking, but there simply isn’t enough information in this case to really have a valid opinion one way or the other. I’m interested to hear more details, and hope they will be shared before anyone jumps to official conclusions or actions.
To clarify, the two falls were out of two different dorms with what appear to be completely different types of windows. One is a modern high-rise, the other a renovated prewar low-rise.
I really feel for this family. However, I would want my child to be able to escape a second-story dorm window in case of a fire.
FWIW my friend’s daughter is a freshman at WSU and she says the dorm windows are incredibly low and unsafe. What I can imagine happening is someone stumbling when opening the window (perhaps this is what happened to the sober student). With alcohol comes instability and possibly nausea, and it should almost be anticipated that this will happen when a drunk student opens a very low window for air. If you have a campus culture of partying, and you are on warning that your windows pose a hazard, the school has a moral responsibility and possibly a legal responsibility to correct this defect.
I suppose they could install those toddler locks on windows.
There are probably intermediate steps short of toddler locks. Some sash windows in older buildings slide down from the top instead of sliding up from the bottom. That would give you the same access to air and escape routes without the low threshold.
Echoing #10: At this particular school, it is ridiculous. Kids fall out of windows in the dorms, sororities, or frats with alarming regularity. No excuse if safety was not considered during the dorm renovation.
The two dorms mentioned in the article (Duncan Dunn and Orton) are described in the links below. You can look at the photo galleries to see what the windows are like.
https://housing.wsu.edu/residence-halls/communityduncan-dunn/
https://housing.wsu.edu/residence-halls/orton/
While extremely sad for the family, can’t fix until we know what needs to be fixed. What was the situation that contributed to the young man’s fall? (And the wrong answer is an open window.) Did he roll out of bed while fast asleep? Was he dancing on top of the window shelf and slipped?
That doesn’t seem like a good idea.
Do the dorms have stairs as well? Far more people die falling down stairs than out windows.
There are tons of safety regulations for stairs. They have to have standardized steps, handrails at a particular height, limited straight runs, etc. What, if any, are the rules for windows? Do we need better ones?
The current version of the International Building Code requires window sill heights in apartments and dormitories to be 36" above the floor if the exterior height of the sill is more than 6’ above the ground. Or there need to be window guards or the window can only open 4". That does not solve the issue of pushing beds up against windows which I have seen a lot of people do and was even shown in one of the pictures in the links provided by ucbalumnus. I had a friend who used to sit in the dormer windows of Dunster House. I thought she was nuts! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunster_House#/media/File:Dunster_House.jpg
I think window guards might be a good idea here. They are all over NYC and don’t cost that much.
