Oakmont High Rallying Around Teen Injured After Homecoming Dance
ROSEVILLE (CBS13) – A tragic accident over the weekend is bringing a local high school and community together.
Julian Ortiz fell from a moving car Saturday night after the Oakmont High School homecoming dance.
Now the staff, the student body and even the surrounding community are coming through in a big way to support him.
Friends say Julian is a fun, outgoing 15 year old. But the weekend accident after the homecoming dance landed Julian in a medically induced coma at UC Davis Medical Center.
Jackson Kerrigan was there when the accident happened.
"He fractured his skull and I know there was internal bleeding in the brain," Kerrigan said.
But it's the way the Oakmont High School community is rallying around Julian that is catching the eye of many.
Students have made shirts, put stickers on football helmets and made signs with various messages of hope for the sophomore.
Social media has been flooded with pictures and video of Julian. They've even come up with a hashtag: #blueforjules.
And it's not just emotional support. An account has been set up and the community is stepping up to help Julian's family cover the medical costs.
"It raised ten thousand dollars in the first day. Our goal was five thousand and we bumped it up to ten. And now we're up to fifteen and we just raised it up to twenty, actually," Kerrigan said.
While money won't improve his health, these teens want to do anything they can just to get things back to normal.
"It makes you appreciate all those sucky days, all the boring classes. Like, what I would give right now to just be in a boring class with Julian," Kerrigan said.
Julian's friends say doctors are waiting for the swelling in his brain to go down before waking him up from his medically-induced coma.
