ERHS presents “Every 15 Minutes” to teach students the dangers of Drunk Driving. Photos by: Emily Aguilar
BY: EMILY AGUILAR
EASTVALE – Eleanor Roosevelt High School conducted the Every Fifteen Minute simulation on March 20 – 21 to educate students on the dangers of drunk driving. The program is conducted by selecting twenty-two students and their families to act out a simulation in which a few of them were killed in a car-related accident caused by someone being intoxicated. These students are then pulled out of their classrooms and homes for two days in order to make their “death” feel real to all involved.
On the first day, students were taken to Scholar Way to witness a “car crash”, equipped with law enforcement, actors, and a Grim Reaper who walked around the dead students to show the brutality of drunk driving. While watching the eerily real looking blood covering the bodies of their fellow classmates, some students were distraught by what they witnessed. “The events that are taking place today are fake, however, they happen so often, they feel real,” remarked Senior Alexis Castro.
The following day, students were taken to the gym where they attended the memorial service of their beloved classmates. A sense of vulnerability seemed to weigh upon the audience while they were subjected to a slideshow of the deceased students before their death as well as seeing their coffins surrounding a group of family members of the deceased. The mock-memorial service proved to soften the hearts of the audience when the ‘living dead’ students, their families, and a victim of drinking and driving tearfully read out their letters to the audience that described what they would tell the world if they had an opportunity to speak from the beyond.
Although emotional, the simulation made students take the challenge to not drink and drive and value their lives and the lives of others. When asked why he felt this simulation was necessary, the school’s principal, Mr. Goins stated that it “puts the thing we hear about into a form in which we can see and feel the tragedy.” The
