Wilmot Union High School students watch the pre-prom mock disaster at the school Thursday. /Earlene Frederick photo
Students at Wilmot Union High School and Central High School both had events this week to drive home the potentially fatal consequences of drunk driving as prom and graduation season approach.
On Thursday at Wilmot, students witnessed a mock disaster involving a staged car crash scene involving actors portraying high school students and other involved individuals. Actual local fire department, EMS and law enforcement personnel participated to give it a realistic appearance.
On Friday at Central, school’s Peer Helpers sponsored a different event to illustrate the impact of drinking and driving. Elisa Rosenick, school counselor, explains:
According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), every 53 minutes someone is killed in a drunk driving crash. To demonstrate this statistic, preselected students will be removed from class every 53 minutes by the Grim Reaper who will be played by school counselors or other faculty members. The “victims” will have their faces painted with white make-up and will change into black clothing. Because they will be representing someone who has been killed in a drunk driving accident, the “victims” will not speak for the remainder of the school day. We will also have a preselected student represent a drunk driver who survived a crash. Our school resource officer, Deputy Dave Wright, will be performing sobriety tests with this student during his lunch hour and the student will then be “arrested”. At the end of the school day, all the participants will line up near the lobby to be observed by the student body as they leave for the day.”
they used this presentation the year before me, and the year after me… How does that one work out? well hope the high school knows three of my classmates were killed in drunk driving accidents, as well as four-five have OWI’s.. Wilmot has always been messed up… wish I could’ve graduated from another place.. I’m embarrassed to be a Panther