Teacher's Fatal Fall From Balcony Caused by Laughing

A beloved Pennsylvania teacher died Monday after falling from a balcony in Mexico while laughing too hard. Trib Live reports 50-year-old Sharon Regoli Ciferno was on a vacation in Mexico with her 15-year-old daughter when she fell from a balcony Aug. 4. David Regoli tells Penn Live his sister was sitting on the ledge of a friend's roof-top deck. "She was sitting on the bench when she started laughing very hard and when she put her head back she lost her balance and fell back," he says. David Regoli says "alcohol did NOT play a role" in his sister's death. Ciferno suffered injuries to her body and brain. She died Monday at a hospital in San Diego.

Ciferno taught sixth grade at Huston Middle School and had worked in the Burrell School District for 28 years, according to her obituary. "She wore her heart on her sleeve," principal Brian Ferra tells Trib Live. "She would do anything for anyone." Ciferno was loved by students and parents alike. "She wasn't just a teacher," one of her former students says. "She was a friend, she was your peer, your inspiration—at least to me." Ciferno leaves behind a husband and two children. Her family is taking comfort in the fact that her organs have been donated to five people in need. (More accidental death stories.)