Student dies from fall through roof

By FRITZ MAYER

PORT JERVIS, NY — By all accounts, 15-year-old Lindsey Billman was a good kid, popular with classmates and teachers, and her life ended much too early.

In the early hours of Saturday, January 26, Lindsey was sitting with her friend, 18-year-old Nicholas Moscatiello, on a domed skylight on the roof of the Anna S. Kuhl elementary school in Port Jervis. Police officials say apparently the four-foot by four-foot skylight gave way, and the two students fell 33 feet to the floor of the gymnasium below.

After they fell, two other students, who had been on a different part of the roof, discovered the accident, called 911 and waited for help to arrive. Billman was taken to Bon Secours Hospital and pronounced dead. Moscatiello was flown to Westchester Medical Center where he was listed in critical but stable condition.

New York State Police at Middletown say all four students appear to have been drinking.

Captain Wayne Olson said, however, that while the students should not have been on the roof, the investigation did not give any indication that the students had intended to commit a crime.

The Port Jervis City School District provided grief counselors for students and teachers on January 28. Superintendent John Xanthis said that the death was particularly hard for some in the district because there had been 11 student deaths district-wide from August 2005 until now. The deaths were unrelated and involved incidents such as a drowning in the Delaware River, car accidents, a hunting accident and illnesses.

Xanthis said a lot of students will miss Billman, who was the secretary of the sophomore class, a volleyball player, active in the school chorus and on the honor roll (see obituary, page 8).