“911, What is your emergency?”
The call echoed through the hallways at Johnson High School just after 10a.m. Wednesday.
There has been an accident. Two cars full of students crashed, and one student has been thrown out of one of the SUV’s involved. The scene was chaotic as juniors and seniors piled out of the high school to witness the result of a staged drunk-driving crash. It’s all part of a program called Shattered Dreams put on by the Johnson Parent Teacher Student Alliance (PTSA). The goal is to get students to think twice about the decisions they might make during spring break.
“When you see your friends that are living through these things and your friends are getting hurt by other people’s actions it really sets in place, like, it can really happen to anyone,” said junior, Parker Mapes
It’s an “all-hands on deck, in your face” approach to the problem.
Senior, Isabella Rios added “it was very realistic cause in the moment if felt like if I was a bystander of the accident.”
The San Antonio Police Department is there. They are questioning one of the drivers. After a field sobriety test, the driver suspect of driving under the influence is cuffed, put in the back of a patrol car and taken to the central magistrate’s office. There, she will learn first-hand what happens when you cause a deadly drunk-driving crash. While police are dealing with the driver, firefighters and paramedics from several area departments show up on the scene to work on the injured. The firefighters pull out the Jaws of Life to peel one of the vehicles apart to get to the wounded. A group of wounded students are taken by ambulance to the hospital. At this point, an AirLife helicopter lands. That crew is picking up one critically injured student. Those students will get a tour of the University Hospital and learn what a trauma patient goes through, including rehabilitation. Once all the injured are taken care of, a hearse arrives. It is there for the young woman killed in the crash. Once she arrives at the funeral home, she will learn what families are forced to go through when they lose a loved one.
“Beforehand it’s just like one of those things, oh it's just like a production,” said junior, Kendall Curtis-Malone. “But then to see someone lying on the ground, people get taken to the helicopter and ambulance, seeing a girl get arrested, it’s just like surreal to see how this could actually happen in real life.”
Its eye-opening, but this isn’t the end of the learning. Several students spent the rest of the day as “walking dead.” They are not allowed to talk and have to give up social media for 24 hours to highlight the absence left by victims of the crash. On Thursday, the students will attend a memorial for those who died in the crash. It’s an elaborate performance, but hopefully, it’ll be a reminder to these students to make good decisions as they head off for spring break.
“We want them to be safe and enjoy this time. I mean they are young,” said NEISD Police Chief Wallace McCampbell. “You hope that by seeing stuff like this, they may think twice. If it stops one person from getting into a vehicle of someone who’s been drinking, then you know we’ve been successful.”
Story by Evan Henson
North East Independent School District
8961 Tesoro Drive, Ste 112
San Antonio, TX 78217
www.neisd.net
