The victims of drunk driving The victims of drunk driving (March 19, 2004)

MVHS students play dead in serious lesson

By Julie O'Shea

Every 15 minutes, they arrived. Without a word, they slipped, somewhat apprehensively, into the large wooden casket laid out on the floor of the office building and watched as the lid banged shut on top of them.

These 18 students -- three freshman, five sophomores, five juniors and five seniors -- were Mountain View High School's "walking dead," struck down and "killed" by drunk drivers Monday.

With their faces painted white and dark circles framing their eyes, the "spirits" of the "dead" were permitted back into class, their presence acting as silent reminders of what's at stake when someone decides to get behind the wheel of a car while drunk.

"Every 15 Minutes" is a nationwide program that lets teens experience the real-life consequences of drunk driving. Police estimate that a person dies every 15 minutes, on average, as a result of an alcohol-related collision.

A group of Mountain View High leadership students executed a truncated version of the program this week. Next spring, the high school will undertake the whole program, complete with a simulated car wreck and many more "fatalities."

It was Elizabeth Gist, a sophomore, who approached the leadership class with the idea of bringing "Every 15 Minutes" to campus. She said she was introduced to the program during her driver's training class last summer.

"I want this at our school," Gist remembered thinking.

But the intense program, which involves the police department, other emergency workers and a helicopter, would have taken a year to plan, and the leadership class only had six months. What materialized was "Grim Reaper Day," with Assistant Principal Matt Neely starring as the angel of death.

Dressed in a hooded black robe and a scythe made out of tin foil, Neely walked from classroom to classroom, plucking his victims from their daily routines. Marching them back to the front office coffins, he declared the teens "dead" for the day.

The students were allowed to go back to class a few minutes later, but they weren't allowed to speak for the rest of the day. A counselor with the Community Health Awareness Council was on hand in case any student needed to talk about the day.

Six years ago, Mountain View High did a full-blown "Every 15 Minutes" simulation, an experience Neely still recalled vividly.

"It's just a really intense thing," Neely said. "It's very emotional."

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

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