Emotions run high at high school anti-drinking program

Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Home News

During the Every 15 Minutes program at Coronado High School Oct. 16, traffic officers Leon Farmer and Mike Faires, right, assess the simulated injuries of Lauren Fetto, center, after being ejected through a windshield during a mock alcohol-related car accident.

By Frances Vanderploeg (contact)

Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008 | midnight

As Coronado High School dance team captain Lauren Fetto's body was placed on the ground last Thursday, her friends and fellow students gazed open-mouthed. Many seemed unable to look away.

The tears began to stream from many students once Fetto's parents openly cried after identifying their daughter.

Though parents and students knew Fetto was alive, the emotion of the moment, the detailed makeup, the toe tag and the body bag overpowered their logic. Fetto's faked death was used to illustrate the impacts drinking and driving can have on a high school.

She was one of more than 20 students to participate in the Henderson Police Department's 18th Every 15 Minutes program. Since 2001, the program has been held for juniors and seniors at Henderson high schools as a way to personalize the effects of drinking and driving.

"The dead can wait," an officer said, as Fetto's body was placed aside in order to retrieve other students from the crashed cars who may have had a chance at life.

In the end, students were told, of four teens in the cars, one died on the scene, one died at the hospital and another was arrested for driving while under the influence.

Many students said it was a lesson they took to heart, admitting they had ridden in cars at least once with friends behind the wheel who had been drinking.

"The worst was when the parents started crying," Madison Stratton, 16, said. "If it doesn't have an effect (on students), the people are stupid."

Her friends agreed.

"I'm still getting chills," Laura Lynch, 16, said after the event.

Stratton and Lynch had a front row seat for the moment the parents identified Fetto. The girls and their friends thought this was a lesson that would stay with them for quite a while, especially because they felt it was something real that could have happened to any of them.

"We've all been in that situation," Jordan Travis, 16, said.

To drive home the point, preselected students were taken from a different class every 15 minutes during the school day to demonstrate the fact that a teenager is killed that often in an alcohol-related crash.

Once the students were removed, their obituary was read to the class, all means of communication were taken away, and they attended a retreat with the other "dead" students. For those attending the retreat, it was an opportunity to gather more information about what happened. For everyone else, it served as a way to reinforce the idea that their friend had died, which is why they were not allowed to communicate with anyone until after school Friday.

To complete the demonstration, an assembly was held Friday to speak to the students about the importance of not drinking and driving.

Frances Vanderploeg can be reached at 990-2660 or frances.vanderploeg@hbcpub.com.