Drinking, driving lesson fails common sense test
Hoax by school officials included telling students their friends were dead
Jun 13, 2008 04:30 AM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
OCEANSIDE, Calif.–On a Monday morning last month, California Highway Patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School to announce horrible news: Several students had been killed in car wrecks over the weekend.
Classmates wept. Some became hysterical.
A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax – a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving.
As seniors prepared for today's graduation parties, school officials in the prosperous San Diego suburb were defending themselves against allegations they went too far.
"They were traumatized, but we wanted them to be traumatized,'' said guidance counsellor Lori Tauber, who helped organize the shocking exercise and got dozens of students to participate. "That's how they get the message.''
At school assemblies, some students held posters stating: "Death is real. Don't play with our emotions."
Michelle de Gracia, 16, was in physics class when an officer announced that her missing classmate David, a popular basketball player, had died instantly after being rear-ended by a drunk driver. She said she felt nauseated but was too stunned to cry. "They got the shock they wanted," she said.
Some classmates became extremely upset, prompting the teacher to tell them it was all staged.
"People started yelling at the teacher," she said. "It was pretty hectic.''
School officials had intended to reveal the truth at assembly late in the day but word leaked out earlier that it was a hoax.
"You feel betrayed by your teachers and administrators, these people you trust," said Carolyn Magos, 15. "But then I felt selfish for feeling that way, because, I mean, if it saves one life, it's worth it.''
The school division said it fielded only a few calls from parents about the program, while the PTA chapter said it got no complaints.
Oceanside Schools superintendent Larry Perondi said the program would be revised.
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The tactics of certain California educators in promoting unimpaired driving has received much attention. The stunt understandably angered several students, who naturally reacted with much emotion both when they were told that their fellow students had died, and when they had found out that it was a hoax. Unfortunately, this method seems to have drawn more attention towards questionable teaching practices than the issue of impaired driving itself. While the intent was well-placed, we may ask whether a more sustainable and productive method of engaging with the issue of impaired driving is to educate students and allow decisions to be made. That said, as student Caroly Magos noted in the article, if the exercise saved the life of one student, perhaps it had a place.
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