After three Boston-area college students died in unrelated falls from tall structures in the same number of months, The Boston Globe saw it fit to group the accidents together, interviewing parents who urged university administrators to warn their students about the dangers of high structures.

While alcohol allegedly had a role in all three, the circumstances of each accident were completely different. Each tragedy was well out of the control of the universities.

The most recent death involved Northeastern University student Brian Evans, who fell off the roof of his four-story apartment building. David Evans, the man’s father, said it would not surprise him if Brian had been drinking.

Early that same Saturday, University of Massachusetts graduate student Brandon McDonald fell off of a bridge attempting a handstand. The Lowell Sun reported that he fell from the bridge “Saturday morning after having had a few drinks with friends.”

And Harvard student David Magoon fell from a fire escape of his Back Bay apartment in July. Magoon’s friend Stacie Wolf told The Globe that he had a couple of drinks over a few hours but seemed sober.

Each was a student, each had been drinking and each took mild risks. But for The Globe to group all of these cases together demonstrates a grave misunderstanding of what is going on here.

The victims’ parents have called upon the universities to prevent students from taking “unnecessary risks.” But in reality there is little universities can or should do to keep students from falling off bridges and roofs and fire escapes — especially when the students are living in off-campus apartments, as all three students were.

While we understand schools should and do have the best interests of their students in mind, protecting them from themselves is beyond what a school can offer.

The randomness of these three accidents prevents definitive action from being taken.

Here at Boston University, the only measures the university has taken to prevent falls from their own buildings is banning roof access and warning students to think before they act. And this is all they really can do.

The only solution for students to avoid tragedy like this is to take responsibility for their actions.

We are adults now and must realize that mistakes that put us in harm’s way can have dire consequences no matter how vigilantly our administrators try to protect us.