A youth in the care of Beacon Light Behavioral Health Systems
Inc., reportedly fell from the roof of the school in Custer City at
2:25 p.m. Tuesday.

The youth apparently fell 20 to 25 feet from a roof, landing on
a porch railing and deck, according to responders to the scene. The
call to McKean County Emergency Dispatch reported a fall victim at
the school.

Tom Urban, president and chief executive officer of the agency,
told The Era late Tuesday afternoon that agency staff were still
looking into the matter.

“The staff just let me know a little while ago,” he said. “It
was one of our youth. He was taken to Erie. That’s all the
information I have at the moment. They are trying to determine his
motives. We don’t have any information on what his motives
were.”

Urban said it would be speculation on his part to say whether
the incident was an accident, an attempted suicide or something
else. The youth’s identity was not released.

The Bradford Township Volunteer Fire Department responded with
eight volunteers, one rescue pumper and a utility truck to set up a
landing zone at the soccer field next to the school. The Bradford
City Fire Department responded with two men and a paramedic
ambulance and treated the patient before he was flown from the
scene by LifeStar helicopter to Hamot Medical Center in Erie.

No information was available regarding his condition as of late
Tuesday.

The Bradford Township Police did not immediately return calls
seeking comment on the incident.

Beacon Light does have a summer session of school. It was not
immediately clear if school was in session at the time of the
incident Tuesday.

The school, located along U.S. Route 219, is designed to provide
education for young people who have been unsuccessful in
traditional classroom settings, according to the agency’s Web
site.

This is not the first time the agency’s residents have made the
news. Several years ago, a teenage boy died in an accident while
spending recreational time in the Bradford community.

In 2004, a 14-year-old boy from Erie died while swimming at
Heffner Reservoir in Bradford during a Beacon Light group home
activity. The child, Dustin Dembinski, was with a group of children
and two staff members to reportedly fly kites at the property of
the Bradford Water Authority.

The staff members, Janel Riel and Ryan Swanson, had said the
children were hot and asked to wade in the water. Some of the
children started swimming and Dustin began experiencing
difficulties. Attempts to save him were unsuccessful.

Riel and Swanson were cleared of any wrongdoing by an
administrative law judge, who ruled the death an accident.