"Every 15 Minutes" program evokes emotions

Tuesday was a sober event for those who attended the "Every 15 Minutes" mock accident scene at Cayuga School.

With background music that evoked emotion from teens, parents and school staff who watched as emergency personnel and law enforcement arrived on the scene of the mock accident as the Grim Reaper surveyed the damage.

And there was plenty. The two-car accident threw one teen out of the car — and instant fatality in this case. Three other teens laid lifeless in their vehicles, with their bloody arms hanging out the window. The fifth teen - the "drunk" driver, was unhurt, of course, and was handcuffed and taken to jail. The emergency medical personnel and fire department worked together to extract them from the car while providing medical care. As the Grim Reaper walked the premise, their lives hung in the balance as the minutes went by slowly.

Eventually, a helicopter from Air Rescue in Corsicana arrived on the scene to take the injured to the hospital.

And while all of the above was staged, as a parent myself, I know it had to affect many of those watching the scene, as no matter what I tried, tears still rolled down my eyes. The same way it did the first time I saw the "Every 15 Minutes" program in Neches in 2004.

With many of us as parents facing the issues that arise with our children becoming of legal age to drive, the worries mount. Not only do we have to worry about them driving safe, we have to worry about them not drinking while driving.

While it would be easy to not worry about it and say "my kid wouldn't do that," the fact is every 15 minutes a teenager dies in the United States from an alcohol-related accident.

So we can't ignore it. The message of the "Every 15 Minutes" program is to make these young teens who are beginning to drive or may be in a vehicle with a teen driver, to realize their actions do have consequences.

As EMS Director John McMeans told the kids — before they graduate from high school, they will ALL know at least one person who died in an alcohol-related accident. Maybe the person they know won't be the drunk driver, but it could be a person who was at the wrong place at the wrong time when the drunk driver was on the road.

Early Tuesday morning long before the mock accident, the Grim Reaper had been making his rounds. Every 15 minutes he stepped into a classroom, tapped a kid on the shoulder and pulled them out of class. Their obituary was read. An obituary they had to write themselves. The students were returned to class, but not unchanged. The had to put on black t-shirts and wear white paint on their face. They were considered the living dead and could not talk or react to the living for the rest of the day. They weren't alive.

But during the day, there was laughter and giggles as the Grim Reaper neared and many joked around. But as John McMean tried to reinforce: It's not funny when you are begging for your life. He should know. He remembers the faces of all of the teens he has zipped up in a body bag.

His point: Take it seriously. Drunk driving kills people.

To make it even clearer, following the mock accident, the 20 students who participated in the program were taken to the hospital and funeral home. Their parents were asked to "identify" them. Even though this was a fake event, as a parent I don't know if I could do it. It brings out feelings that we as parents hope we never will have to face. And I hope while the parents were sobbing above them, I hope the teens underneath the white sheets could how much pain the thought of their possible deaths put on their parents' faces.

Then, the students were taken to a local motel with the Palestine EMS as chaperones, where they were instructed to write a letter to both their mother and father as if God had given them once chance to say the things they wouldn't be able to say if they had died in the wreck. Parents at home were instructed to do the same.

On Wednesday morning (March 11), the students will assemble along with the "living dead" and their parents. A special speaker will talk from a personal experience about why you shouldn't drink and drive. Some of the parents and students will read the letters they wrote to each other. Having seen this before in Neches, I know how hard this is. While it simply looks like words on a piece of paper, when you put them in the context of thinking you may never see that person again and what would you tell them, the emotions kick into high gear.

If anything, maybe it will make some of the teens think before they drive and do their best to always drive safe and responsibly.

As John McMeans told me: If it saves only one person, it's worth it.

P.S. I apologize for the choppy video. I'm in the learning stages.

——— Cheril Vernon, Community Editor