Was this school's behavior appropriate?

Question

On a Monday morning last month, highway patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School to announce some horrible news: Several students had been killed in car wrecks over the weekend.

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.

At school assemblies, some students held up posters that read: "Death is real. Don't play with our emotions."

Did the school officals go too far or was this hoax an acceptable way to teach the dangers of drunk driving?

Answer 1

there is no need for that that extreme measure

i would be P*S*ED off if i were the parent of the kids.

there are other acceptable ways on teaching kids about drink driving.

Answer 2

Yes,who ever okayed that should be fired.That's beyond dumb and hurtful for no reason.

Answer 3

Where?

Back home?

How?

Getting themselves kick on the butts as casulty of the dead Mummy in moving backwards in time with total loss of IQ without being aware of it created in own backyards.

While impressing others as success of cheap-skate glory of National Identity.

In short-changing , conning and deceiving own children back home with self lack of knowledge without being aware of it.

With " Come let's have fun"

"We can"

Luke 8.5-8,10-17

What do you think?

Answer 4

Just goes to show how really stupid teachers and cops are.The students should start a class action law suit against the cops and the person at the school who gave the go ahead for this act of lunacy.Should be real easy to find a lawyer to handle this case.

Answer 5

I understand that they wanted to get the point across....the focus was impact. But, I thinkg the approach was very tacky.

How would they like it if some one came to their house and informed them that some one they cared about was dead. Then later on inform them it was not true.

I agree with the students - I am an educator and I would not take this approach. I firmly disagree with it since it is not tactful and it does cause problems - it does play with the emotions of people.

This is a scared straight type of tactic to catch attention. Catch the students attention through creativity not by playing with the concept of death don't play with their emotions.

Answer 6

I don't think a good dose of reality ever hurt anyone. Yeah, the kids may be mad, but they'll get over that. What they may remember is how horrified they were when they heard of their friend's deaths. Maybe it did teach them something. Heck, maybe that's why they were so outraged.

In the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school I lost a friend to a car accident. Two friends were in the car, the driver went into a coma for 7 weeks and then passed away. The passenger was injured beyond belief but is still alive today...and 18 yrs later still won't talk about the accident. I saw what happened in my school when we lost that girl. I saw what happened to everyone who was her friend...I saw what happened to the kids who didn't even like her...the kids who didn't even know her. I saw what happened to her parents...and my heart still breaks. They weren't drinking. It was the middle of the day, they were doing fundraising for our high school yearbook. There was a malfunction with the car and they didn't have their seatbelts on. She was 16. If she had been a more experienced driver or had her seatbelt on maybe she'd be here today.

A couple months ago there was another kid lost from our local high school. He was drinking and again no seatbelt. He was 17. Everyone in town loved this kid. There are still signs all over town that say "Reeves, we love you, we'll never forget you." I'm crying just writing it. His mom works at our local conveneice store and I can't imagine how she copes...having to see all his classmates and friends come and go every day. That's got to be a living h**l.

So, yeah, I think what this school did was appropriate. I applaud this school and the police there for doing it. If the kids got mad, too dang bad. When they are older they'll see it in a different light. I wish so badly someone would have done that at my school and maybe it would have saved my friend, maybe it would have saved Reeves. Maybe it wouldn't have, but at least they could have said they tried.

Death is real. However, to most school age kids it's only something that happens to old people. I really believe death became real to them only after they experienced it. I know in my school that after my friend died everyone in my class began to wear their seatbelt. Go figure, huh?

Answer 7

It would have worked better if the Highway Patrol had ambushed some kids and driven them off the road, so at least the crashes and injuries would have been real.

Cops! They just don't think these things through...

Answer 8

ya that wasn't very good to lie, cause now the kids will think the whole drunk driving thing is a lie. you should never lie, and i wouldn't blam the kids later when the don't trust cops

Answer 9

I may not have agreed to that exact exercise - but teen drinking, drugging, driving and dying are all too real for many high-school aged people, to say nothing of their families, friends etc. As has already been mentioned - if the tactic prevented some students from making disastrous decisions well, then it worked. When young people do silly things there  can be tragic consequences, unfortunately the reality is that young people are not always in the best position to make better decisions - lacking experience and the knowledge that some decisions will reach into the future and change it in a way that may not be apparent... very often it is luck rather than accurate decision processes that save a youth's life.

Every year at this time the local papers are filled with tragic news of the senseless deaths of young people who made one stupid mistake - and it was the last stupid mistake they ever had the opportunity to make. I don't applaud the school for the tactic - but I would say that this is a school community that sees the value of every student and would like every student to graduate and move on to bigger and better decisions.

Answer 10

I am sure the students were angry as h**l when they found out that it was a hoax. Can't say as I blame them.  Here's the but.  But if it stopped even one of those kids from drinking and driving it served its purpose.  From what I have read right around 6,000 teens die each and every week in auto accidents.  That is a very frightening statistic.  How many of these fatal accidents are alcohol related I don't know.  Most likely, too many.  I cannot imagine the pain the parents, brothers, sisters and rest of their families must feel. If this hoax does its job then maybe it was the right thing to do.

Answer 11

I think it was a horrible thing to do to those kids. Not all kids drink or do drugs, why should they be emotionally scarred because of the stupid kids who do?

Answer 12

i think it was a good idea because death is real so they should know how t feels like to lose someone you love so it doesnt happen.