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May 8 , 2006 • VOL. 44, NO. 9 • Oakland, CA
O’Dowd students learn lessons of drunk driving
Students at
Oakland’s Bishop O’Dowd High School know that senior Andrew
Prince has a bright future ahead.
Prince stars as catcher for the Dragon’s varsity baseball team,
is on the Campus Ministry Team, participates in Mock Trial, is a co-leader
of the Black Student Union, and is a member of the National Honor Society.
He has also qualified as a finalist in the National
Achievement Scholarship Program.
He is excited to be heading to Harvard University next year, where he
will play baseball for the Crimson.
But on April 3, a simulated drunk driving collision staged in the main
parking lot on campus showed students just how quickly Prince’s
future could dramatically change.
The students were dismissed from class to attend an assembly, at which
they watched from bleachers adjacent to the staged crash scene as Prince,
along with several other pre-selected students, was extricated from one
of two crash vehicles.
The participants in the collision were made up by a professional moulage
artist to enhance the realism of the exercise, and representatives from
the California Highway Patrol and the Oakland fire and police departments,
as well as American Medical Response paramedics, participated in the event.
The staged crash was one of several components of the Every 15 Minutes
program, which was started in the early 1990s when it was estimated that
a person in the United States was killed every 15 minutes in an alcohol-related
collision.
With programs like this one, as well as MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving)
and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions/Students Against Drunk
Driving), that number is now closer to every 30 minutes.
According to CHP officials, this powerful program is designed to create
an awareness among students that they are not invincible, and challenges
students to think about drinking, personal safety, and the responsibility
of making mature decisions when lives are involved.
Junior Jade Kirvin said the staged crash was extremely intense, and that
she was startled to see one of her good friends, Simone Olsen-Varela,
pulled from one of the severely damaged vehicles. “To hear (Simone)
crying like that …. even though I knew it was fake, it was like
it was really happening,” she said.
Before the “crash,” one student was removed from class every
15 minutes becoming one of the “living dead.”
A uniformed officer and a counselor entered the classrooms of the nearly
20 students selected as the “living dead” and read each student’s
obituary to those remaining in the class.
Well-liked history teacher Tony Green was also one of the “living
dead.”
Simultaneously, the parents of each “living dead” student
were given their child’s death notification by a uniformed officer
and/or chaplain.
“It was a lot more difficult that I thought it would be,”
said junior Alan Welsh, one of the “living dead.” “My
heart was pounding when I got pulled out of class, and I knew that they
were coming.”
Welsh said that he thought that it was important for the student body
to see such a realistic simulation. “They need to see firsthand
what can happen so that they can make the right decisions so that things
like this don’t happen,” he said.
On April 4 students attended a memorial service for their classmates who
had been involved in the previous day’s staged accident or participated
in the program as one of the “living dead.”
A mournful bagpiper led a procession that included the “living dead”
students, as well as those who were accident victims, escorting a coffin
down the main aisle.
Holding votive candles, the students assembled on the stage.
As Basilian Father John Malo touched each student’s shoulder, the
student blew out his or her candle – symbolizing a life extinguished
as a result of a decision to drive under the influence.
Two guest speakers personally affected by someone’s decision to
drive a car under the influence of alcohol also attended the memorial
service.
“Five years ago my dad was killed by a drunk driver while he was
riding his bike,” said Colby Shore, a sophomore at De La Salle High
in Concord.
Wendy Reynolds told the students how she lost her entire family –
her mother, father, and little sister – as a result of an alcohol-related
traffic collision. Only five-years-old at the time, Reynolds herself was
severely injured in the accident and almost died.
Both Shore and Reynolds talked about the lasting impact of losing their
loved ones in such a senseless manner, and encouraged O’Dowd students
to make smart choices when it comes to drinking and driving.
“I think that even though students say they are aware (of the dangers
of drinking and driving), this was a real eye opener to see (victims’)
parents and their reactions,” junior Mannie Thompson said.
(Lisa Coffey Mahoney is publicist for Bishop O’Dowd High School.)
An
O'Dowd student who was "a fatality" in the staged crash scene
is wheeled away by a coronor during the "Every 15 Minutes" program.
Tombstones mark the graves of the "living dead"
who symbolize persons killed in alcohol-related collisions.
