Many juniors and seniors were driven to tears – a few to near hysterics – May 26 when a uniformed police officer arrived in several classrooms to notify them that a fellow student had been killed in a drunken-driving accident.
The officer read a brief eulogy, placed a rose on the deceased student's seat, then left the class members to process their thoughts and emotions for the next hour.
The program, titled “Every 15 Minutes,” was designed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Its title refers to the frequency in which a person somewhere in the country dies in an alcohol-related traffic accident.
About 10 a.m., students were called to the athletic stadium, where they learned that their classmates had not died. There, a group of seniors, police officers and firefighters staged a startlingly realistic alcohol-induced fatal car crash. The students who had purportedly died portrayed ghostly apparitions encircling the scene.
Though the deception left some teens temporarily confused and angry, if it makes even one student think twice before getting behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated, it is worth the price, said California Highway Patrol Officer Eric Newbury, who orchestrates the program at local high schools.
This outrageous hoax was orchestrated against the students by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the California Highway Patrol, with the assistance of 36 of their fellow students. Since when are schools permitted to emotionally torture students? Were parents notified in advance that the school was planning to traumatized their children?
In the referenced article, California Highway Patrol Officer Eric Newbury is quoted as stating "I want them to be an emotional wreck." This is abuse. Education through terror and emotional stress is a technique used by certain other governments in the world. These governments and their abuses are the subject of frequent protests in the United States, yet the State-schools subject U.S. citizen students to the same sort of treatment.
In an earlier hint of the organization's lack of respect for the youth of our country, Candy Lightner, Founder of MADD, shared her belief that young adults “don’t think for themselves.” In an interview with Fox News Ms. Lightner attempted to explain why the draft age is 18, while the legal drinking age is set at 21.
"That’s exactly why the draft age is 18…because these kids are malleable. They’ll follow the leader. They don’t think for themselves."
"Malleable" and "emotional" kids. These are the targets of MADD's disturbing programs. You don't yell fire in a crowded theatre, and you don't commit elaborate hoaxes to convince someone that their friend has just been killed. Just what is the lesson the students learned in the California high school? That uniformed police officers are willing to commit misleading and deceptive acts against innocent people? That their fellow students can't be trusted? That the State-school system will allow an outside organization to enter the school and wage psychological warfare against students? All of this is supposedly done in the name of education. Where is the proof that such psychological games have any lasting effect? What's the lesson learned when the students realize they've been victims of a cruel hoax?
There's no argument that drunk driving is a dangerous problem and our youth need to be educated to understand responsible use of alcohol. All too frequently I read about an innocent person being injured or killed due the negligence of a drunk driver. In almost all these occasions the guilty party is an habitual offender who has been allowed to remain free to drive despite numerous previous offenses. I don't recall any of the tragic automobile-related deaths of local students being attributed to alcohol use by the students. Perhaps MADD should focus it's educational energies on judges and the bleeding hearts who put these repeat offenders back on the streets.
Tip of the hat to O'DonnellWeb for linking to the news report.
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