prom and EMS

Rid, it wouldn't surprise me if most of the students saw these programs as just extra time outside of the class room.
 
We have very strong 'Don't drink and drive' adverts on T.V. here,
as well as programs in the schools.
But I feel that until the youth gets it into they head that:

"It's never going to happen to me!" Should be, "Who says it's not?"
"I'm a good driver" Should be, "But maybe not as good as I think!"
"I'm alright to drive!" should be "Have I had my blood alcohol tested to prove that!"
"He's my best friend, I trust his driving" should be "I've seen him drinking all night, I'll suggest we call a taxi or parent"
Or the fact that they think that they are invincible! Should be, No you are not Superman/Superwoman!

I can't see it happening any time soon. But in the perfect world it would be nice, and make our jobs a little easier.

Cheers Enjoynz
 
I agree. I'm a mother of two boys in their early 20's and both of them commented on how 'lame' the presentations were. They will affect those who already were going to be careful and they will not even touch those who really need the message.

Think back, for some of us...waaaaaa aaay back, to our teen years. Who were the kids who died in wrecks from our youth? We probably all knew someone who died in a drinking related wreck, even if it wasn't a close friend. Was there anything, anyone could have said or done to stop them from doing what they did that night? I don't think there is.

My boys have, as far as I know been pretty aware and fairly conservative in their behaviors. I don't know how much of that has to do with parenting and how much has to do with the jobs their parents hold, but I'm sure a large portion has to do with dumb luck. So I just keep my four leaf clover on my lucky rabbit's foot keychain!
 
The point is to prevent drinking and driving from happening on a night where it is most likely to happen among teens. Whether or not it "works" can't be studied or researched. Having the mock accidents ups teens chances of doing the right thing. Keeping kids informed of any kind of danger helps no matter how small or large the scale.
 
i think it does affect the kids i really do. if it didnt affect the kids i dont think i would be interested in doing it because then it would just be a waste of time. you know what i mean. because that takes our time and our resources the medical supplies that we use the danger of us running code. it just wouldnt be worth it. and i have had kids come up to me or other people and be like thanks for showing us this im not gonna go to that party tonight now. and even if it only stoped one person from drinking and driving and stopped that person from getting into a wreck and killing that family of four in the mini-van than it is worth every bit of it. its when we stop doing these things for the community and showing what happens if you do this. i think its then that we will see an increase in problems related to drunk driving accidents.

as is about every 15 mins. there is a drunk driving related accident (not sure if it leads to a death or not) but that is far to soon
 
BossyCow said:
The local MADD chapter here sponsors a program where they remove from the high school the number of kids expected to die in drug/alcohol related events. A guy dressed as the grim reaper just comes into a class, selects a child and takes them away. The kids 'selected' to represent the dead kids are treated royally for the day but they are not allowed any contact with anyone at the high school for 24 hours.

Its a pretty powerful program, and is followed up with an assembly but I'm not sure how effective it is at modifying behavior or changing attitudes, but its a tradition now.
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we do the exact same thing in my area...but the mock accident would be a fun one too..if anybody sees this as a waste of resources then they should think back to all the people on scene for all of the ETOH related accidents and compare notes.
 
mikeylikesit said:
we do the exact same thing in my area...but the mock accident would be a fun one too..if anybody sees this as a waste of resources then they should think back to all the people on scene for all of the ETOH related accidents and compare notes.
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It's a waste of resources if it's ineffective. My big question is, "Are the people affected the ones most likely to be the ones who have a probability of drunk driving?" If most of the students are thinking, "Yea, an extra few hours outside of class to socialize and relax," then it is a waste of resources. It'd be similar to going and doing this at a nursing home.
 
My school does the same thing described in the first couple of posts. They actually do it the last two days before spring break. It's called "Shattered Dreams" here and it's only once every other year.

Being in high school I can say that, from experiencing it, it really doesn't effect people that much. At least not the ones who need to listen. Someone who replied earlier said something about it affecting people who already are careful and not affecting those who need the message. Most people I heard talking about it thought it was really lame. Something I heard a lot was "They're just trying to scare us into not drinking and doing drugs".
 
Kate-Lynn said:
My school does the same thing described in the first couple of posts. They actually do it the last two days before spring break. It's called "Shattered Dreams" here and it's only once every other year.

Being in high school I can say that, from experiencing it, it really doesn't effect people that much. At least not the ones who need to listen. Someone who replied earlier said something about it affecting people who already are careful and not affecting those who need the message. Most people I heard talking about it thought it was really lame. Something I heard a lot was "They're just trying to scare us into not drinking and doing drugs".
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But if it works for just one person for whatever reason then it is worth it. think about how much more personnel is tied up in the event of an accident, 4-6 EMT/Medics, 2-6 police officers, 4-8 firemen, and countless hospital staff.
 
mikeylikesit said:
But if it works for just one person for whatever reason then it is worth it. think about how much more personnel is tied up in the event of an accident, 4-6 EMT/Medics, 2-6 police officers, 4-8 firemen, and countless hospital staff.
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This is true.

But I still agree with the fact that people who are more likely to drink and drive are more likely to be the ones talking the whole time and saying how stupid it is and just not caring because they think "that will never happen to me".
 
We just had a presentation at school about drinking and driving. The mother of the 17 year old boy who died spoke, and she had all the girls in the auditorium crying.... I think that we all know what can happen, but you don't really think about it until you are faced with the reality of the situation.
 
Another thing we did was have a nurse come in and talk about drugs. She explained in, graphic detail, how the process of pumping your stomach works. Some people actually had to leave the room. I think it had an effect on some people.
 
We have a mock accident where I used to go. It showed a head-on collision with an intoxicated driver, who was given a field sobriety test (which she failed), arrested, and placed into a police vehicle. The remaining involved vehicle occupants were extricated and loaded into ambulances. One student was declared "dead" by the coroner, placed into a body bag, and taken away from the scene by hearse. In my opinion, it showed the students how bad the victims of motor vehicle accidents end up and hopefully dissuaded them from making any poor decisions.
 
When I was in high school... only about 5 years ago now... we had the every 15 minutes thing go on for the week before prom. But instead of having people sign up to be the "chosen ones" we chose the kids who we knew were drinking on a regular basis. I think it actually hit harder for them than for any of the other students because we dressed them in all black, painted their faces white, and they weren't allowed to talk to anyone... Our local Fire/EMS Dept came in along with the State Police (we had a post only about 5 minutes outside of town) and they used a vehicle that was from a car accident where a student from our school, or the one in the next town over, was either killed as the drunk driver, or was killed by a drunk driver. On the final day we had a school wide assembly, and had all of our "dead" students come up on stage, and then had everyone look around to see the empty seats in the auditorium. The part that had the biggest impact was when we actually made a video to go along with the final day that had the pictures of students from our county who died in EtOH related accidents, and had the family members talk about it.

Some people may not think that it works, but I know that our FD/EMS Dept. saw less accidents in the years we did the programs, than in the years we didn't... take what you will out of it.
 
I have my girlfriends prom 2 nite, hope nobody gets sick or needs help because im not playing Mr. delay the ambulance to see if they will straighten out.
 
curraheemed said:
When I was in high school... only about 5 years ago now... we had the every 15 minutes thing go on for the week before prom. But instead of having people sign up to be the "chosen ones" we chose the kids who we knew were drinking on a regular basis. I think it actually hit harder for them than for any of the other students because we dressed them in all black, painted their faces white, and they weren't allowed to talk to anyone... Our local Fire/EMS Dept came in along with the State Police (we had a post only about 5 minutes outside of town) and they used a vehicle that was from a car accident where a student from our school, or the one in the next town over, was either killed as the drunk driver, or was killed by a drunk driver. On the final day we had a school wide assembly, and had all of our "dead" students come up on stage, and then had everyone look around to see the empty seats in the auditorium. The part that had the biggest impact was when we actually made a video to go along with the final day that had the pictures of students from our county who died in EtOH related accidents, and had the family members talk about it.

Some people may not think that it works, but I know that our FD/EMS Dept. saw less accidents in the years we did the programs, than in the years we didn't... take what you will out of it.
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Hmm..too bad that doesn't work around here. Kids here just decide to party harder so they pass out and have an excuse not to drive. When they don't realize how badly they are destroying their lives by drinking so hard at such a young age.
 
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