Drunken-Driving Dramatization

[Madre]

El Camino teens face heavy emotions brought about by drunken-driving dramatization

By Pat Sherman

May 30, 2008


OCEANSIDE – It was an elaborate hoax, but 36 students at El Camino High pulled it off with potentially life-saving consequences.

The result was a soberingly realistic dramatization about the dangers of drinking and driving, delivered with surprising professionalism.

Many juniors and seniors were driven to tears – a few to near hysterics – May 26 when a uniformed police officer arrived in several classrooms to notify them that a fellow student had been killed in a drunken-driving accident.

The officer read a brief eulogy, placed a rose on the deceased student's seat, then left the class members to process their thoughts and emotions for the next hour.

The program, titled “Every 15 Minutes,” was designed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Its title refers to the frequency in which a person somewhere in the country dies in an alcohol-related traffic accident.

About 10 a.m., students were called to the athletic stadium, where they learned that their classmates had not died. There, a group of seniors, police officers and firefighters staged a startlingly realistic alcohol-induced fatal car crash. The students who had purportedly died portrayed ghostly apparitions encircling the scene.

Though the deception left some teens temporarily confused and angry, if it makes even one student think twice before getting behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated, it is worth the price, said California Highway Patrol Officer Eric Newbury, who orchestrates the program at local high schools.

“When someone says to me, 'Oh, my God, you're traumatizing my children,' I'm telling them, 'No, what I'm doing is waking them up,' ” said Newbury, whose father was killed by a drunken driver.

“If you don't do your job as a parent ... the only thing I can do is either arrest them and take them to jail or scrape them off the ground and tell you, 'I'm so sorry.' ”

Standard speeches don't usually get the desired reaction, Newbury said.

“If I sit there and lecture somebody in a nice way, it's going to go in one ear and out the other,” he said. “In today's world, where they have all sorts of gore and fantastic things that kids can access on the computer, if you want to compete with that, you have to jar them emotionally.

“I want them to be an emotional wreck. I don't want them to have to live through this for real.”

A few teachers chose not to take part in the production. The ones who did monitored the situation closely. Students who appeared overly distraught were taken aside and told the death was not real.

Senior Brittany Bennett, 17, editor of the school newspaper, played one of the alleged deceased and took the role of a reporter at the accident scene.

Bennett said some students gradually began to discover what was happening on their own.

“Some people were comparing notes, text messaging each other, like, 'So-and-so died,' and 'so-and-so died,” she said. “The wheels were starting to turn.”

The 36 students who participated later attended a retreat at the Carlsbad Inn, where they tried on “beer goggles” that mimicked the sensation of having a .25-blood alcohol level.

Counselor Lori Tauber first approached the school and students about bringing the presentation to El Camino. Tauber's two daughters attend the school.

Tauber said she is aware that drinking and driving is occurring among the student population.
“I just know in my heart this was worth it,” she said.

[Madre]

School Defends Drunk Driving Shock Tactics

Students Told That Classmates Died In Crash


OCEANSIDE, Calif. -- On a Monday morning last month, California Highway Patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School to announce some horrible news: Students had been killed in car wrecks over the weekend.

Classmates wept. Some became hysterical.

A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax -- a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving.

As seniors prepare for graduation parties Friday, school officials in the largely prosperous San Diego suburb are defending themselves against allegations they went too far.

At assemblies where speakers talked about the dangers of drunk driving, some students held posters that read: "Death is real. Don't play with our emotions."

Michelle de Gracia, 16, was in physics class when an officer announced her missing classmate David, a popular basketball player, died instantly after being rear-ended by a drunk driver. She felt nauseated but was too frozen to cry.

"They got the shock they wanted," she said.

Some of her classmates were hysterical, prompting the teacher to tell them immediately the death was staged.

"People started yelling at the teacher," she said. "It was pretty hectic."

Others, including many who heard the "news" between classes, were left in the dark until the 26 missing students reappeared hours later to enact a fatal traffic accident.

Carolyn Magos, 15, thought there might have been a gang shooting when she saw clusters of kids crying in the hall.

"You feel betrayed by your teachers and administrators, these people you trust," Magos said. "But then I felt selfish for feeling that way, because, I mean, if it saves one life it's worth it."

The stunt was a twist on a program called Every 15 Minutes, which was designed in the early 1990s, when someone was killed an average of once every 15 minutes in alcohol-related accidents. By 2006, the frequency dropped to once every 39 minutes, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which is not associated with the program.

In California, the state highway patrol, local law enforcement agencies and schools use the curriculum authored by the Every 15 Minutes Organization, based in Lehigh Valley, Pa.

Here's how the program normally works: Students chosen to symbolize the dead are pulled out of their classes by someone in a Grim Reaper costume while their obituaries are read aloud.

A few hours later, they reappear in ghoulish makeup to enact a traffic accident at an assembly. Rescue workers whisk "victims" from a mangled car to a hospital or morgue. The "dead" then spend the night at a hotel isolated from friends and family before returning the next day for an assembly with parents and professional speakers.

At El Camino, the students who were in on the secret shunned the Grim Reaper skit.

"We didn't want kids laughing at it," said Michelle Molin, 17, a junior. "It's like Halloween."

El Camino officials agreed to try to give students the experience of real grief. They defend how they handled the exercise.

"They were traumatized, but we wanted them to be traumatized," said guidance counselor Lori Tauber. "That's how they get the message."

The school had counselors on standby to calm kids who were visibly upset but didn't anticipate the power of cell phones to spread the word.

Before class, a freshman who knew her sister was playing dead texted her friends to say the girl had been killed. Word spread quickly among the school's 3,100 students, many of whom clustered between periods crying.

Even administrators who knew about the program thought there had been a terrible coincidence.

"I got a call from the principal's secretary saying, 'I heard one of our Every 15 Minutes students was really in an accident!"' said Tauber. "And I was like, 'No, they're right here."'

Dean Wilson, executive director of Every 15 Minutes, said he didn't endorse the hoax. He knew of only a handful of schools where students were told a death was real.

In 2002, a high school in Eagle Grove, Iowa, north of Des Moines, used a hoax death to "step up" the program, said Mark Kay. His son, Aaron, dropped out of sight after school, while his brother messaged friends asking if they'd seen him. The next morning, students were invited to view a coffin in the school foyer where the boy was playing dead.

Oceanside schools superintendent Larry Perondi said he fielded only a few calls from parents, while the PTA chapter said it had not heard any complaints.

Wendy Reynolds, a former prosecutor who spoke at El Camino High about her experience being orphaned by a drunk driver, said most students would benefit.

"I think we save lives if one kid makes a better choice every time he gets in a car," she said.

Perondi said the program students got the message.

"We did this in earnest," he said. "This was not done to be a prankster."

[LaDonna]

I think this is a fantastic program. Today's kids think they are invinceable and can do anything and walk away. I am so glad that a program like this exists....I pray that this will shine the light on how permanent drinking and drinking results can be.....either you spend the rest of your life living with the fact that you choose to drink and drive and take the life of someone or your life is over....that is it.....I commend those with MADD who got this started....

I saw the crash scene on tv and o my very realistic.....they did a good job of recreating an accident.

[babylove]

I think this wonderful. If it causes young people to be responsible for their actions then that IS a good thing.
I knew a family that lost there daughter on her 21st birthday to a Drunk Driver and it was just devastating to the whole family.

[Jessy]

They did this here at a local high school, students were blown away! I think its a great attention getter.

[Madre]

I had a completely different reaction when I heard about this on the radio yesterday. I think it's very cruel to actually tell students that their friends have died and then declare it a hoax (even if it's for a good cause). I don't think the means justify the end here.

On our local radio station one of the personalities said that if a student gave a bomb threat and then later said, "I was just kidding", there would be no tolerance at all. He would be at the least, suspended or expelled and at the most, arrested. So, why is it ok, to plunge students into grief and then, say, "Hey, it's ok. Don't cry. It's a hoax to get you to make you aware of the dangers of drunk driving. Don't you feel better now?"

I think the program usually is more of a dramatization, but El Camino High School took it to the extreme. If that had taken place at our high school, I would have been pretty upset, quite frankly. :???:

[Jessy]

The one they did here they didn't actually tell them their classmates have died, they did the grim reaper route with that and they still had kids emotional and crying, I agree that its a bit over the top actually telling someone that they lost someone dear to them when they didn't. I know some of the worst moments in my life were receiving the news of losing a loved one, its an awful experience that you should only have to go through when it happens. I do agree with the rest of the project though! Watching your friends getting pulled from a wreckage you just witnessed with the jaws of life just gets to you, teens need to see what can happen.

[pasloma]

Well... I agree with Madre... :D

At the beginning I thought: What a good idea!!! ... but then... thinking about it... even we would like all the people who drive to be really aware of how terrible the damage of drunk driving can be.... and we would like them all to be dramatically exposed to the consequences so they think twice before drinking and driving... I think this is not "the best" way to fight against it... It might work well with some though!....

BUT I think ... that... if we go to the Bible... lying is simply not justified... We can't do something wrong even for good reasons...

It's hard... but .... we lie enough without planning it... Lying "on purpose" sends "different" and "opposite" messages to those kids in schools...

I think sin shouldn't be fought with sin...

There should be other ways to do this... And still we must know that most kids sadly won't understand...

Unfortunately things are just going to get worse... Still we cannot just sit and do nothing... But what we do ... should be always telling the truth...

I think...

Paloma.

[LaDonna]

To me someone calling in a bomb threat is much different that a drunk driving accident. I wish school like this all of the country would do programs like this. I think it gives the kids a wake up call to what can happen when they make a bad choice. This is a lesson in life choices that is being portrayed here. Underage drinking and drinking and driving at any age is a huge problem and I would totally support any program such as this one. My parents were both EMT/firefighters and I can tell you horrific stories that involve drunk driving and maybe a program like this can reach some of these kids....maybe those who have never been taught or shown what the consequences might be. I would rather scare the mess out of someone vs. having to watch them be buried because of a choice they made. I am a strong believer that drunk drivers should receive 1 strike and that is it...you are out vs. giving them opportunity after opportunity to recommit and many of them do and because punishment was light the first time around the second or third time the victims do not survive...

[luvmy4sons]

Does the ends justify the means? I am not so sure. I don't think it sends a very good message to our teens when we use deception to get a message across. Could it not be better made by having a person with a REAL story come in and speak? I am sure there are many, many out there who have been affected by a drunk driver more than willing to share. I have to wonder after having been deceived if some of the lesson then gets lost. :???:

I have learned that I can talk and instruct and quote and show and even cause consequences, but some things my children must learn and see and know for themselves. This is of course something that we don't ever want them to experience first hand...my point is that just because we shock them with a piece of false information doesn't mean we will get any better results. I think honesty, true stories of real tragedy, and lots of prayer would work far better! :-D

[pasloma]

Does the ends justify the means? I am not so sure. I don't think it sends a very good message to our teens when we use deception to get a message across. Could it not be better made by having a person with a REAL story come in and speak? I am sure there are many, many out there who have been affected by a drunk driver more than willing to share. I have to wonder after having been deceived if some of the lesson then gets lost. :???:

I have learned that I can talk and instruct and quote and show and even cause consequences, but some things my children must learn and see and know for themselves. This is of course something that we don't ever want them to experience first hand...my point is that just because we shock them with a piece of false information doesn't mean we will get any better results. I think honesty, true stories of real tragedy, and lots of prayer would work far better! :-D

I just... agree! :D

Paloma.

[Madre]

To me someone calling in a bomb threat is much different that a drunk driving accident. I wish school like this all of the country would do programs like this. I think it gives the kids a wake up call to what can happen when they make a bad choice. This is a lesson in life choices that is being portrayed here. Underage drinking and drinking and driving at any age is a huge problem and I would totally support any program such as this one. My parents were both EMT/firefighters and I can tell you horrific stories that involve drunk driving and maybe a program like this can reach some of these kids....maybe those who have never been taught or shown what the consequences might be. I would rather scare the mess out of someone vs. having to watch them be buried because of a choice they made. I am a strong believer that drunk drivers should receive 1 strike and that is it...you are out vs. giving them opportunity after opportunity to recommit and many of them do and because punishment was light the first time around the second or third time the victims do not survive...

Yes, I agree, a bomb threat is different (in a way). However, there is a bit of a double standard here i.e. it's ok (desired, beneficial, justified) for authority figures to lie to young people provided it's for their good. However, while I think a bomb threat is selfish, foolish, and harmful, the student, in a sense, could be viewed as following his examples. While his intentions are not for the good of others, he is creating a frightening, but deceptive scenario, just like the teachers did. The DD dramatization is conveying the idea that lying and deceiving others is ok if your reasons are altruistic.

I don't mean to sound snippy, LaDonna. [hug] I'm just viewing it differently. I've also edited the daylights out of this post in order to qualify my comments and make them clear. [whatwacko]

[Mo2b1d]

The DD dramatization is conveying the idea that lying and deceiving others is ok if your reasons are altruistic.

At first I thought the DD presentation probably was a good idea, but after thinking about it, it goes against how we're taught to live in the Bible. I don't remember reading any passages about how it was ok to lie in certain circumstances. On the contrary, it is clear what God has to say about lying and liars.

I did a quick keyword search for the word liar, and it's pretty clear that there aren't circumstances where God thinks it's ok: http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=liar&version1=31&searchtype=all&limit=none&wholewordsonly=no