On October 12, two House of Reagan freshmen, also known as the House of Honor, jumped into the Hudson River along the North Cove Marina at Brookfield Place to retrieve a volleyball. Though neither of them were injured, the action of jumping into the Hudson had its own repercussions.

After about 15 minutes of attempting to swim to the docks at the pier, Timothy Mineo and Josh Hosner grew tired, and their house executive team member, Caleb Hosner, called 911.

“The current was going in the opposite direction. When I jumped in, I thought there was a ledge that I could grab onto and just get back up the same way that I came but it was all flat and there was nothing to grab onto,” said Mineo. “We had to swim to a ladder on the other side of the pier, but the current just kept pushing us back. It would’ve taken us about 3 hours to get back and I was tiring out and holding onto the side.”

Jumping into the Hudson River traditionally carries negative connotations. The Hudson River is a notorious spot in New York City for people to commit suicide, so the act of jumping in at all has a negative connotation to Native New Yorkers. Mineo, born and raised in New York, acknowledged the repercussions from jumping into the Hudson.

“People jump in the Hudson to commit suicide,” Mineo said. “People were telling us, ‘you guys were supposed to die.’”

Regardless of the negative view that people in New York have about jumping into the Hudson, Hosner and Mineo were not reprimanded by the authorities for jumping in.

“There were helicopters above the water looking for us, and there was a boat and I believe there were three firetrucks, two or three ambulences, and then maybe 70 various paramedics, cops, and firefighters along with the security of Brookfield Place,” Hosner said. According to both Hosner and Mineo, though, most of the authorities were more amused than upset by the situation.

Hudson River Park’s Rules and Regulations states that swimming is only permitted in designated swimming areas and if caught, the people swimming could be fined an upwards of $500.

According to Hosner, the boys were in fact in an illegal swimming area of the park.

NYPD Special Ops tweeted about the incident. I I Photo credit to NYPD Special Ops

With a security crew of that many size, the incident in the water seemed to an outsider as a high-risk emergency. Though no one was in serious danger, the authorities were not hostile towards the Mineo and Hosner for jumping into the water.

“The actual authorities were friendly and lighthearted and wanted to make it a lightened mood because typically they’re dealing with hard things, so this was something that lightened their day,” Hosner said.

Nick Sweddick, Assistant Dean of Students at King’s, recommended that for safety, it is always best to do as Hosner did and call first responders in any seemingly dangerous situation.

“We do encourage students to call first responders, when needed, to get paramedic, police, or firefighter professionals to situations like this,” said Sweddick. “I believe that happened in this situation and I am glad students got that help.”

Both Hosner and Mineo have yet to receive any updates from the authorities about possible consequences for jumping into the Hudson.

“They said that they’re going to look into it and see if they want to ticket us but it’s been two weeks now and we haven’t been ticketed so I don’t think we will be,” Hosner said. “The cops also said that there was no mal-intent with what we were doing.”

King's freshmen rescued after jumping into Hudson