Allderdice H.S. Student Hospitalized After Fall From Window

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A Pittsburgh high school student was taken to the hospital with serious injuries Thursday morning after he fell from a fourth floor school window to the ground below.

Just before 9 a.m. Thursday, police with the city and Pittsburgh Public School District, along with paramedics converged on Taylor-Allderdice High School in Squirrel Hill.

"I got a phone call stating that there was a child, a young man that jumped out the window," said a parent arriving to take her daughters home.

Investigators are going over conflicting stories from student witnesses.

"My daughter said, the boy said he had to vomit and he started screaming, and everyone went to see. He jumped out the window," says Sharon Grayson.

The unidentified 16-year-old student fell from a fourth floor boy's bathroom window, that's about 40 feet.

First responders found him conscious. We are told he landed on a vehicle in the parking lot.

But there is confusion about whether the teenager jumped or fell. He's contending that he fell.

A surveillance camera placed directly above the window may provide more information.

"Prayers for their family, because it's really sad," said Grayson.

The parents that we spoke with say they were forced to come to the school because they were getting so little official information about what happened.

"They wouldn't answer the phones; we couldn't get through," said Phillip Grayson, another parent. "They refused to let the children use their personal cell phones."

But Pittsburgh Public Schools spokesperson Ebony Pugh says an automatic advisory message was picked up by 80 percent of parents. The principal also later sent an e-mail message.

The victim sustained serious trauma, including injuries to his lower extremities and facial lacerations.

He was taken to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital.

More than a dozen students went home early. Most of them had witnessed the incident.

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