McClatchy High Students Experience Dangers of Driving Under Influence
Students at C.K. McClatchy High School experienced the dangers of driving under the influence during a two-day event earlier this week.
The event is part of the "Every 15 Minutes" program, which happens at high schools nationwide and aims to inform high schoolers about the dangers of drunken driving as well as texting while driving. The name is a reference to the fact that every 15 minutes someone in the United States dies from an alcohol-related traffic collision. The two-day program begins with a staged car crash and ends the next day with an assembly that focuses on the events of the previous day.
The program started on Tuesday, when students witnessed a staged car crash on campus. The staged crash involved students from McClatchy, who played different parts including a drunken driver, a dead passenger and an injured person. The juniors and seniors watched as firefighters and officers from the Sacramento Fire Department and California Highway Patrol worked the scene like they would in a real collision, and students who played the parts of the people in the crash were treated as they would be in a real collision.
"The police department came, and they took the drunk driver away in a cop car, and they took the people to the hospital," said student Janna Langhi, a junior. "They even had the coroner come and take away the dead person."
Throughout the day, a different student was pulled from class every 15 minutes, representing one person who will die from an alcohol-related collision. The students are led to a private retreat where all communication to friends and family is cut off for the rest of the day. Parents of those students also receive death notifications from officers at their wor
