http://www.cbsnews.com/news/notre-dame-student-dies-fall-joyce-center-roof/
It is heartbreaking when young people die just as they are starting life. We live in a college town. A few weeks ago a young woman set to graduate last weekend was murdered. The alleged killer was arrested the same day. He dropped his cell phone at her feet. It makes the world seem upside down.
So tragic! Prayers for both families.
This is terribly tragic, but what was the student doing on the roof of the arena, and at 3:45 am?
In my town, a high school senior suddenly died a couple weeks ago during the first hour of a school day. Her brother also died suddenly during a road trip without cause last summer after freshmen year at college. Real terribly tragic for that family.
And how much alcohol was involved?
“This is terribly tragic BUT?” Does it make it any less tragic if it involved alcohol or a bad decision? I made many less than stellar decisions at a young person, and I was very lucky that none of them resulted in something more tragic. I’m sure many of you can say the same. Comments like the ones above that make me long for the CC of years ago.
All deaths are tragic
But young ones more so
As a parent who will attend the graduation ceremony of my daughter tomorrow, I wish the parents of this student have the strength to cope with this awful loss.
No, it doesn’t make it any less tragic.
But if any good can come from tragedy, if it’s it teaches us how to reduce the risk of similar events in the future.
Right now, investigators are examining every aspect of the recent Amtrak crash in Philadelphia to learn what caused it and what can be done to prevent similar crashes in the future.
Similarly, I think something can be learned from accidental deaths of students. If there is a pattern to these tragic events, and I suspect there may be and that alcohol may be a key factor, then something can be learned from that, and hopefully the risk of future, similar tragedies can be decreased.
Accidents from acting recklessly do happen. There are worse things, in my opinion. A student of mine committed suicide in her senior year shortly before graduation. She was awarded a degree, accepted by her brother with her family gathered for the event. Not to celebrate, but to commemorate.
The contribution of reckless behavior to student deaths is often not reported, out of respect for the grieving family. While I understand this, because it is bad enough to lose your child, and worse to lose them to their own young stupidity, it ends up making the statistics about the potential consequences of alcohol/drugs/general stupidity seem completely removed and irrelevant to their classmates. At DS’s school, a 20 year old student died in his apartment bedroom from “respiratory failure” this past year. Okay, anyone over 30 knows that in all likelihood a 20 year old doesn’t suffer respiratory failure randomly … probably induced by excessive alcohol. But the rest of campus doesn’t connect the dots that way unless they personally knew him and knew of the specific circumstances. The rest of the campus doesn’t hear, “a kid my age just died because he stopped breathing in his sleep because he’d had too much to drink.” They hear, “a kid my age had some random bizarre thing happen that made him stop breathing. Dang!” So they’re “never” affected by the consequences of alcohol/drugs, so all the statistics seem dry and removed from them and go in one ear and out the other, when in fact there are people around them dealing with those consequences every single day … but people tend not to talk about it. It doesn’t become real to them until they either themselves have a near miss, or are personally witness to someone having an issue. I think if we talked about it more, they would understand it better.
Anyone remember this thread? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/613436-penn-soph-dies-after-fall-from-dorm-roof-p2.html The reason one poster (barrons, IIRC) got skewered was because he seemed to persist with the notion that the student’s death was not tragic but that the student was stupid. Of course the death of any student is tragic. Cannot imagine the grief. But sadly, the death rate amongst young adults, especially young males, is high, partly because of a higher frequency of high risk behaviors. http://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/center-for-adolescent-health/az/_images/us%20fact%20sheet_final.pdf
Hug your kids.
Although I agree this is tragic, I believe it happens FAR more than we want to acknowledge.
My youngest sister took her own life as a 21 year old college junior while living off campus at a large state school. It was never mentioned in any local media, students at the school were never informed, and besides the professional organization for her major planting a tree in her memory, there was no other acknowledgement from the school.
I don’t know what makes one event newsworthy and another not newsworthy, but whenever I read a story such as this, I always wonder how many stories we don’t ever get the opportunity to hear about.
That is so sad, jrcsmom. So sorry. Sadly, people find mental health issues and suicide so difficult to discuss.
The accident was tragic but …
I don’t know why some of you think it’s taboo to talk about the reason, if you think it’s bad, why even mention the event at all?
For me, you absolutely want to talk about the reason. A mistake was made by this young person. If you let the opportunity slip without teaching other young persons and maybe save one life, then you will have made another mistake.
“If you let the opportunity slip…” Ouch… tough choice of words in this circumstance :-<
I agree it’s important to talk about all the contributing factors…including substance abuse, which is so prevalent in college.
In January of this year I lost a student of mine, who fell from a 4th story window of my dorm. He was well-loved on campus and the students took the loss hard. I didn’t learn until very recently, after getting hammered by questions about the incident at a student orientation where I was helping, that a coworker had read the medical examiner’s report and that the student’s BAC was 0.16.
The loss is always tragic; we see our students as invincible, and they almost certainly see themselves that way. But something has to be done to make students think twice before binge drinking. We send students to the hospital on a weekly basis (no exaggeration) due to excessive intoxication. We have to change the culture that binge drinking is a right/expectation/is fun…that won’t happen until students start realizing the consequences of those actions.
BTW, several students started a memorial for the student we lost outside my building…a few days later 6 of his friends walked over, shotgunned a PBR each, and left the empty cans. I wonder if they knew the circumstances of his passing.
Please, PLEASE have honest talks with your students before you entrust them into our care about substance use and being responsible. That week/month was every Residence Life professional’s worst nightmare.
@HisGraceFillsMe Thank you for sharing your unique perspective.
That must have been a hard thing to write about.
Amen.