How not to teach kids about Drunk Driving.

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How not to teach kids about Drunk Driving.

Postby Baconsticks » Tue Jun 17, 2008 1:51 am

OCEANSIDE, Calif. - 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.

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 prepare for graduation parties Friday, school officials in the largely prosperous San Diego suburb are defending themselves against allegations they went too far.

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

'They got the shock they wanted'

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 drunken driver. She said she felt nauseated but was too stunned to cry.

"They got the shock they wanted," she said.

Some of her classmates became extremely upset, prompting the teacher to tell them immediately it was all staged.

"People started yelling at the teacher," she said. "It was pretty hectic."

Others, including many who heard the news of the 26 deaths between classes, were left in the dark until the missing students reappeared hours later.

"You feel betrayed by your teachers and administrators, these people you trust," said 15-year-old Carolyn Magos. "But then I felt selfish for feeling that way, because, I mean, if it saves one life, it's worth it."

'We wanted them to be traumatized'

Officials at the 3,100-student school officials defended the program.

"They were traumatized, but we wanted them to be traumatized," said guidance counselor Lori Tauber, who helped organize the shocking exercise and got dozens of students to participate. "That's how they get the message."

The plan was to tell the truth to the students at an assembly later in the day. But word that it was all a hoax began to spread before the gathering. Tauber said some counselors and administrators revealed the truth to calm some students who had become upset.

Oceanside Schools Superintendent Larry Perondi said he fielded only a few calls from parents, while the PTA chapter said it had not heard any complaints. Perondi said the program would be revised, but he would not say how. And he said he was glad that students seemed to have gotten the message.

"We did this in earnest," he said. "This was not done to be a prankster."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25123570


Somebody's getting fired over this. This shit is wrong.
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Postby Mista_B » Tue Jun 17, 2008 3:35 am

Assholes should be fired, all of them.
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Postby Bocaj Claw » Tue Jun 17, 2008 3:47 am

Sometimes you have to be cruel.
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Postby Mista_B » Tue Jun 17, 2008 4:13 am

The school board could probably be successfully sued under anti-terrorism laws.
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Postby Ibun » Tue Jun 17, 2008 6:07 am

I see absolutely no problem with this. It is sad that it takes this length to reach kids these days; but the fact is, it does.
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Postby GeorgiaCoyote » Tue Jun 17, 2008 12:30 pm

I see absolutely no problem with this. It is sad that it takes this length to reach kids these days; but the fact is, it does.
Sad indeed that it takes tragedy for teens to learn and even sadder that some still don't. Now as for this, I feel it was a bit too far. I know all to painfully well how losing fellow classmates and friends to tragedies can be. Lost three classmates in high school, two to auto accidents and one to accidental shooting. Deaths are nothing to pull a hoax about, even if the intentions were noble.
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Postby nickspoon » Tue Jun 17, 2008 1:10 pm

I don't care how much you want to put your message across - causing horrible trauma in the minds of children is not the way to do it. To teach them not to kill, would it be okay to staple their eyes open and make them watch pictures of the work of serial murderers? "Your dad died because he was an alcoholic - not really! But I guess you don't want to binge drink now, huh?"

This is foul.
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Postby Bocaj Claw » Tue Jun 17, 2008 1:26 pm

To teach them how to have safe sex, would it be okay to force them to sit through a slideshow of what various STDs do to people? Cause, thats what my school did.

The lesson against drunk driving at my school followed the same principle except with pictures of particularly messy car accidents. Of the legs over here the rest over there variety.
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Postby Baconsticks » Tue Jun 17, 2008 1:33 pm

To teach them how to have safe sex, would it be okay to force them to sit through a slideshow of what various STDs do to people? Cause, thats what my school did.

The lesson against drunk driving at my school followed the same principle except with pictures of particularly messy car accidents. Of the legs over here the rest over there variety.
I'd rather sit through a massive viewing session of nasty crash photos, than be tricked into thinking one of my classmates was dead.
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Postby Tom Flapwell » Tue Jun 17, 2008 3:19 pm

To teach them how to have safe sex, would it be okay to force them to sit through a slideshow of what various STDs do to people? Cause, thats what my school did.
That's different from being told that your friend died of an STD when he didn't.

Look, this isn't just about trauma. Dishonesty breeds distrust of authorities, which leads to disregard for laws.
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Postby rabid_fox » Tue Jun 17, 2008 5:21 pm

Boy who cried wolf? I sure hope not, but I can't help but get premonitions when reading things like this.

Good psychology - badly executed. Really, really badly executed.
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Postby Zaaphod » Tue Jun 17, 2008 11:05 pm

Hmm, lying to the students about fellow students' deaths? Yep, that's brilliant. I suppose showing them graphic videos as Bocaj talked about isn't politically correct, or some such nonsense.
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Postby Fritz » Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:47 am

lol

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Postby Caoimhin » Wed Jun 18, 2008 4:50 pm

Yeah, thats just wrong. Showing them pictures is enough (its kinda bad for me though, I tend to visualize those things happening to me, overactive imagination :x ). What would happen if someone with actual depression (not just misdiagnosed typical crazy teen moodswings) commited suicide over the hoaxed death of a friend? I'm not the one to go worrying about every single little thing. But I know (through experience) that playing around with the emotions of teenagers can not end well. Even if it doesn't end in death you have to be very careful when executing shock treatment. I'm not sure how much time lapsed between when they were told that it was a hoax, but something horrible could have happened. Seriously thats just plain wrong.

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Postby GeorgiaCoyote » Thu Jun 19, 2008 12:31 pm

Hmm, lying to the students about fellow students' deaths? Yep, that's brilliant. I suppose showing them graphic videos as Bocaj talked about isn't politically correct, or some such nonsense.
That wouldn't surprise me one bit. Ok so let me get this straight then. It's too traumatic to show horrific car crashes with severed limbs everywhere to teenagers to teach them about drunk driving but it's perfectly acceptable to trick them into thinking their friends are dead. Yeah that make a hellavu lotta sense. Nothing overly traumatic about that plan at all :roll: You know it's really hard to portray the amount of sarcasm I'm showing right now through just typing.
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