Student Badly Hurt in Fall

Several news outlets already have reported on a story—still unfolding—regarding an 18-year-old college student whose neck and back were seriously injured after apparently falling from a second floor window while at a Main Street house party in Brockport shortly after 2 a.m. Friday morning. The young man who was hurt remains in a medically-induced coma at a Rochester hospital. When he does regain consciousness, he’ll wake to face the possibility of paralysis.

This tragedy has touched three communities: the village, where investigation into exactly what took place is ongoing; the College at Brockport, where the victim had just entered his freshman year; and Caledonia, Livingston County, the young man’s hometown. Sadly, there is nothing any of us in these communities can do but weep.

This afternoon, Brockport Police Chief Dan Varrenti and University Police Chief Bob Kehoe of the College at Brockport hosted a press conference related the incident. Listening to the pair field questions, I thought about the family and friends of the young man involved, and how answers, though important, likely will never soothe their pain or give them peace. Fact is, for them what happened was a life-changing moment that luckily almost none of us ever will have to contemplate, much less comprehend.