It’s something that could have happened to anyone you know and love.

Maybe it was you. Maybe it was your brother. Or maybe it was that girl with the high-pitched laugh in the back of your horrible gen-ed history lecture from freshman year.

But make no bones about it – Shaun P. Connolly is in the middle of a living hell right now.

Connolly, a 19-year-old UMass student from Mansfield, got together with some buddies late one December night. Assumedly, they were bored and just trying to look for some mischievous fun.

It didn’t work out so well.

Connolly and his pals – an assortment of teenagers all under the age of 18, according to the Easton Journal – are now being held responsible for something that no doubt is one of the scariest things any of them has ever dealt with: the death of another human being.

The five teenagers did something that many of us have done. Maybe it’s when you drew the chalk outline on your driveway at seven years old to try and scare your lame aunt who you knew would be visiting. Maybe it’s when you tripped your annoying little brother down the stairs in junior high.

Or maybe it’s when you tested out your new car to see how easily it could crack 100 miles per hour. Just about all of us are guilty of the same things that are now haunting Connolly and his underage friends every day: bad judgment and the yearning for a cheap thrill.

The difference, of course, is the rest of us got lucky.

Sometime during the evening of Dec. 21, Connolly and his friends decided it would be fun to block traffic by dragging a few old truck tires out from a farmer’s field and into the road, something which, according to The Boston Globe, they had done seven times before with no accidents or incidents. However, this time things went horribly wrong. Little did they know that just hours later it would lead to the death of someone not much older than they were.

As an SUV hit one of the tires in the road, careening into a tree and exploding into flames, a whole series of lives were changed forever.

Edwin Keach, a 21-year-old Northeastern University student driving the SUV, died on the scene. Not long after, the five involved turned themselves in, horrified after reading a story about the accident on the Internet.

Now four of the five face charges of involuntarily manslaughter – as well as the shame and guilt that has to be associated with being involved with something that had such dire consequences.

What the five did was stupid and reckless, and it directly led to the death of a bright and talented young man. Friends described Keach, an economics major, as being curious, the center of attention and the one who could always put things in perspective, according to The Brockton Enterprise. Anytime someone like that is lost, it’s a tragedy.

Connolly and his friends, however, face the possibility of another tragedy now – jail time following a stupid, mischievous mistake. Involuntary manslaughter, if convicted, carries a sentence of anywhere from probation to 20 years in prison, according to WCVB-TV Channel 5 in Boston.

Despite their loss, their grief, and the way their lives have been changed forever, the Keach family has remained remarkably stoic and honorable. Edwin’s father John told the Mansfield Daily News that the family has no desire for vengeance, and said it is unfortunate the decision to charge or punish them is in the hands of others – especially after “they at least showed a conscience” by coming forward.

“They are going to have to carry this burden for the rest of their lives as we are, of course,” he said.

That, more than any sentence any judge or jury could hand down, is punishment enough. It carries a far greater weight than any punishment a prosecution could ever argue for.

UMass spokesman Daniel Fitzgibbons said it is not yet known whether or not Connolly will withdraw for the semester, but one thing is for certain: He shouldn’t have to. People will say Connolly does not deserve our sympathy, or deserve our respect, and that’s no fairer than Edwin Keach being ripped away from life at 21.

Regardless of what people think of Connolly’s blunder, one thing the UMass community does still owe him is its acceptance. Shaun P. Connolly could have been anyone of us, and right now he’s living with a bigger weight on his shoulders than any one of us would want to endure.

Edwin Keach cannot be brought back from the dead, and with that there will forever be tied a weight of sadness. But Shaun P. Connolly deserves another chance to live. If nothing else, we all owe him that right.

Dan Lamothe is a Collegian columnist.