Seriously!?

[myshel]

This is more of a vent than anything else, but I'm just... livid doesn't seem like quite the right word, but...

Anyway, I teach at a Catholic HS in a medium-sized city. Over this past year, we've had awful luck when it comes to our kids. In January, we had a student die in a car accident here in town. Then, in March, we had a student who was injured in car accident near the school-- broken bones that required surgery. She, luckily, recovered and is doing well. In April, we had two students injured in another car accident-- a boyfriend and girlfriend. The boy was not seriously injured, but the girl sustained severe head trauma and was in a coma for several weeks. She even had the surgery ABC newsman Bob Woodruff had to relieve brain swelling. She's slowly recovering but will probably never be the same.

I was so happy when the school year ended. It just felt like despite all of the great things during the year (amazing things academically, state championships in 5 sports, award winning music program), there was this cloud hanging over the school.

So, this morning, I opened up the online version of our local paper to see that FIVE of our kids (conicidentally, all students that I have had in class before and will have this year) were in a car accident. The driver, a male, apparently ran through a T-intersection, hit an embankment which caused the car to go airborne and hit a tree. The driver wasn't injured, but the four girls in the car were-- three not seriously, but one was transferred from our very good local hospital to a university hospital nearby. Her injuries are not considered life-threatening. The newspaper reported that charges of alcohol possession were pending.

When I read the article, I just... I'm pissed. I swear, haven't these kids learned anything throughout the year. I know that kids have this whole, "It can't happen to me" attitude, as if they're invincible, but why haven't our kids gotten the message?

I will admit that I wasn't always an angel in high school and did my fair share of fooling around, but no one from my high school during the four years I was there was ever in a car accident that resulted in serious injuries. Were we just more careful? Just lucky? I'm not sure.

As the school year quickly approaches, I'm not sure if this most recent accident will generate discussion amongst the faculty or students. I almost wish we could bring in a speaker for the student body, someone young and dynamic who could speak to the kids about this whole trend.

It's just so sad to me. All of these kids are great kids, really smart kids. Why the heck aren't they being more careful? Why the heck did the last group think drinking and driving was fine? Argh!

Thanks for letting me vent about this. My DH doesn't quite understand why I get so worked up about all of this, but when you spend as much time as I do with the kids, it does affect you.

[kam]

Holy $&^%! That is an awful lot of accidents in the same age group in such a small amount of time.

I wonder if the school board will curb student driving to and from student events and such? Something's got to be done as the kids don't seem to have a clue.

[myshel]

I wonder if the school board will curb student driving to and from student events and such? Something's got to be done as the kids don't seem to have a clue.

I wish they could do something about all of the driving, but unfortunately, the school is on the edge of town and draws students from our city as well as neighboring cities up to 30 miles away, so I'm not sure how feasible that would be.

I guess I also forgot to mention the car accident in the parking lot where a student driving a car hit a walking student. Luckily, the girl only suffered cuts and bruises but was taken by ambulance.

There are at least five other high schools in the area-- three in our city proper (four if you count the alternative HS) and two in a town whose border touches our own. None of them have had an fatalities in the last two years and there have been very few serious car accidents among the student body-- perhaps two in the last 8 months among the five schools. What is it with the kids at our school?

[AHammer]

If no one else brings up the issue of bringing in a speaker, please be the one to suggest it!

Maybe if the students and parents who were in the car accidents agree, maybe you could just have a school assembly and show people pictures of the accidents and/or injuries and have one of the students speak about what it was like. I know some people don't like scare tactics, but maybe it would help.

Does your school have a chapter of SADD? If not, maybe you could volunteer to be the faculty sponsor and help start that club.

I hope something can be done, and I hope your school's luck begins to change.

[myshel]

Our school does have a SADD chapter, though I'm not directly involved. Last year was a no activities year for me since I was pg with DD.

I seriously hope this comes up during in-service. Once is an accident. Twice is a fluke. This many times? Just plain careless.

[Hello Kitty]

Actually - I think teen driving accidents (I know in the Chicago area) are on the rise, hugely overall and it's very disconcerting. I really hope someone designs some kind of program as an in-service/assembly to get through to them. Or at least give them awareness!

I think there are a ton of reasons that these accidents are increasing, with people's entitled attitudes (children and parents) lack of parental involvement, and a new crop of driving distractions (from other passengers to the suburban $%^&* I saw texting in bumper to bumper traffic :rolleyes: ), I honestly don't see it ever changing. That's not even touching DUI.

[LittleFredPunkinHead]

That's true- it seems like every week on the news I see something about a new fatal accident involving Chicago area teens.

When I first heard about areas raising driving ages to 18, I thought it was an overreaction, but I don't know... Lately it seems like it's probably a good idea.

[Millie03]

I know..it seems like that's in the news all.the.time. Being a private school, I'm not quite sure whether this would work or not, but I know some insurance companies have programs to bring to high schools. I know my main carrier (I'm an agent) has a great program that is run mainly by the kids and helps bring awareness. The insurance agent mainly works with the school and helps the funding. They create different events throughout the year for the school to participate in. It's very cool, and I think it's particularly effective because it's not some police officer or some "other adult" lecturing them.

I don't know if that's something that you can pursue. I don't know what area you're in exactly, but I can think of two insurance companies that have programs..

[strawberry4]

Myshel - We must live in the same city because I read that article this morning -- CR?

Anyhow, it is very sad. I work with college students and I get just as frustrated. They see their friends get in accidents and then do the same stupid thing.

Hang in there. I hope they all come out ok.

Mary

[myshel]

strawberry4: Just sent you a PM.

Thanks for the suggestion, Millie03. I'll have to look into that.

I know when I was in HS, we did an accident re-enactment right before prom using actual students from our high school. I always wish we'd do that at my school.

I know that we were scheduled to have a speaker in February regarding safe teen driving (and not drinking), but the administration scrapped that plan because of the accident with the student fatality. I guess the speaker's presentation involved graphic pictures, and the administration thought it best to not go through with it. Maybe they should have... *sigh*

[Kimberland30]

I'll have to look into that.

I know that we were scheduled to have a speaker in February regarding safe teen driving (and not drinking), but the administration scrapped that plan because of the accident with the student fatality. I guess the speaker's presentation involved graphic pictures, and the administration thought it best to not go through with it. Maybe they should have... *sigh*

That would have been the PERFECT time to have that speaker, IMO. Yeah, teen accidents are on the rise, I can't turn on the news without hearing about one. My DD is a teen driver and she has been given the TALK FROM HELL about what to do and what not to do. Unfortunately, so many of the accidents could have been prevented if the teenager used their BRAIN instead of trying to be "cool" and irresponsible. I mean, text messaging while driving? Cell phones while driving (not only for teens but for everyone)? Chatting with your friends in the car and your radio turned up loud? No wonder teens are in so many accidents, they don't PAY ATTENTION. I know accidents happen, and I've been in a couple myself that were my fault. But it does happen and I'm much more cautious now.

I don't know what the solution is. I don't think it's fair to link all teens together as there are some very responsible teens out there with parents who stick their foot up their @ss when it comes to driving. But something has to be done before another kid becomes a statistic.

[kdotp]

I'm sorry myshel.

FMU, underage driving laws have become much stricter in our state than when we were driving in HS. But somehow, it doesn't seem to make a difference.

[salysaturn]

There have been many accidents here as well (mainly NoVa/Md/DC area), and it always involves the same thing...drinking. How does it keep happening?! What really bothers me, is this girl I used to work with. Her Best Friend died in a car accident, after leaving a party. Just about every picture on her myspace involves a party...where drinking is going on, on top of all the pictures of her and her best friend...hello?!?

I hope this year goes better!!

[young lioness]

Were we just more careful? Just lucky? I'm not sure.

When I was in HS, there was a student injury or death from car accidents every year. My freshman year a girl was paralyzed as the result of an accident, and there was another accident involving about half a dozen cars and a school bus, but that one had only minor injuries. During my sophmore year, a junior died in a car accident (and he had one or two other students with him who had minor injuries). I was at a party my senior year and two of my friends were in an accident (not their fault) pulling into the driveway of the house where the party was (it was on a rural road, the car behind them didn't see their turn signal and tried to pass them on the left as they were turning left into the driveway).

I don't think that number of incidents at your school is totally outrageous, but of course, I don't know the size of your student body. I think that age/lack of experience/risk taking kind of comes with the territory of HS drivers. There may be cases where drugs/alcohol may be coming into play in addition to the other teenage driving issues. And the type of roads that students are driving on could be a factor too...our school was in a fairly rural area, which I think led students to drive faster and take more risks than they might in a more populated area with busier roads/ slower speeds.

I guess I'm not totally shocked by the situations you've described because it doesn't sound much worse than my HS. We did have the occassional anti-drinking/anti-drug/anti-drunk driving assembly and we had a chapter of SADD, although it wasn't that active. I guess maybe things could have been worse if we hadn't had these programs, but maybe they didn't make any difference. There are some kids who are going to take risks regardless, and all you can do is hope they don't take anyone else down with them.

[kalogrias]

Sorry this is happening at your school -- it is hard not to get worked up about it.

We had similar problems at my high school, though there were remarkably few injuries involved (people wrapping cars around lightpoles, etc). Part of the problem for us was that the kids who went to my school almost universally had a lot of money and parents who, while they wanted the best for their children (hence the private education), didn't always pay attention to them and their actions. If a car was wrapped around a tree, the kid got a new car a week later. There were rarely consequences that I could see.

Anyway, what the school used to do was have a program about drunk driving and teen driving (two separate programs) every year. There would always be a play of some sort (enactment, really, more than a play), and then people were invited up to talk about their experiences. One story really hit home for me -- it was the one that ensured that I never touch alcohol if I'm going to be driving*. I think the personal experiences from classmates really made a difference to people because it made them realize that maybe they weren't as invicible as they thought.

*Basically, one guy in my class had 4 friends who went to a neighboring high school (also a wealthy area), and they were on their way home from a sports game. They were driving an SUV, going WAY too fast in an area that was windy and had no lights...anyway, the car tipped over on a curve, and the top slammed into a tree. All four were killed. One of them not instantly -- they think he crawled out of the car and died by the roadside. It was pretty shocking. There was no alcohol involved, but the point made about recklessness was the same.

[diam124]

I can't remember a single serious car accident the entire time I was in high school (1200 kids).

We had a program called Safe Rides. It was staffed by juniors and seniors (with volunteer adults to keep an eye on things) and it was basically a service you could call for a free ride home - no questions asked. One of my best friends was a driver. They basically manned a hotline and then the kids would go out in pairs and pick up other kids (I think they had to stay within the boundaries of our township) from parties and drive them home.

Looking back it seems like there could be some big liability issues, but it worked surprisingly well.

[Fenway]

Wow. I'm so sorry.

The only advice I can give is to take your anger and frustration and turn it into a passion to try and do something about it. Get more involved in SADD, help get a speaker in, petition for some alcohol awareness classes, anything. If you change one student's way of thinking, you've made a difference.

[petdoc08]

I am so sorry you are having to deal with this. I applaud you for wanting to make an effort to change this awful pattern. I lost my best friend in a car accident when I was 16 (she was 17). It was a case where the driver (also a mutual friend) was being careless. She went to a different high school than I did, but my high school had many proactive programs to help prevent such tragedies. Some of the more memorable included:

-An accident reenactment in the school parking lot. We didn't know it was staged until much later in the day. The fire department and police dept. came out for it.
-We had a speaker come in who was driving the car when her friend was killed to tell her first hand account. She drilled the fact that she has to live with the guilt she survived while her friend didn't and it never gets any easier.
-We used "beer goggles" during our p.e. class to illustrate just how impaired you can be after a few drinks.
-Drivers ed was 60% scary videos of car crashes 40% driving
-During prom week, the student body president read a story about a young person every day of the week. This young person was someone whose life was cut short because of a car accident. This really hit home, because these were people with hopes and dreams just like us who never got to fulfill them.
-Also during prom week, we had a grim reaper who would go around and tag students in classes. If you were tagged, you changed into a black sweatsuit and were not allowed to speak to anyone the rest of the day. The tagged students were in proportion to the number of students that die every year in auto accidents. It was a great visual to have all these students dressed in black sitting in our classrooms. (side note- we wore uniforms so the black sweats really stood out)

I will say these may have had a bigger impact on me because of my personal loss. Many times it was a struggle not to bust out crying, especially when the class president was reading the stories of lives cut short. While it may have been hard for me to deal with, I was happy to deal if it meant someone else not having to loose a loved one.

[Tonysweetie]

I'm so sorry!

[myshel]

thanks for the reassurance, ladies. Our high school is the smallest in the area, with only 750 kids. The largest school has easily 1200. I end up having virtually all of the kids in some class or another, so you do get to know them very well. I think that's what makes this so hard.

As kdotp mentioned, driving restrictions for teens in our state have become very strict, much more so than when I was in HS. Back then, you turned 16, and they gave you your license-- end of story. Now, there are curfews and accident limits before you can get your full-fledged license. It seems to have done nothing to curb careless driving in our school community.

I guess I'm just frustrated, because these kids are so very smart and should know better. I suspect that as kalogrias mentioned, some of these kids are a bit too priviledged and don't often have to face consequences for their actions. The kids in the accident are star cross country runners, football players, and volleyball players. One of the girls is the best friend of the girl who was severely injured back in March.

Hopefully, this will be discussed during in-service this year, and a plan can be put into action for speakers and driving awareness techniques.

[AZGirl]

I just saw parts of an HBO documentary called Smashed: Toxic tales of teens and alcohol. I'm not sure what the policy for your school district is on showing videos but this was pretty powerful. It put a face to the consequences of underage drinking.

[princesse]

Not sure what part of the country you are in. I am a principal and have a VERY powerful speaker who came to my middle school but is very high school appropriate. I am in PA. Our district, which is only about 3,100 has lost way too many kids due to car accidents, many due to DUI. The most recent one involved 3 kids who all died. After that we had a twin who drank til he puked and aspirated. He was a sophomore. Our kids still drink. A lot. The write about it on myspace and brag about it in school. Mind you these are my middle school kids. The kids i taught (same school) who are now in their 20's tell me unreal stories.

Unrelated but this child is also mine:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07213/805918-55.stm?cmpid=MOSTEMAILEDBOX

She killed her father after years of abuse. We have had a lot of tragedy.

PM me if you want the info on the speaker. He goes all over the NE and is wonderful.

[Sophia]

Were we just more careful? Just lucky? I'm not sure.

I remember at least 3 fatal car accidents from when I was in HS--from different years and all related to some sort of drug or alcohol use. There was a senior guy--a football hero--who died when I was a freshman; a girl 2 years after that who drove her car into a tree and was decapitated--her friends survived but one was seriously injured; and a year after that a guy from my art class who flipped his car over and was crushed. The first two accidents happened coming back from drinking in Mexico (we're 20-30 minutes from an international bridge, so quite a few of my classmates would go over to Mexico to drink, then drive back totally smashed) and the 3rd was driving home after a party and had been drinking and doing drugs.

I remember that after each accident/death there was this wave of shock that went over the school, and a few people would stop partying, but most of the people who engaged in that sort of thing would be back at it within a week or two. There's definitely an attitude of "It can't happen to me/I can hold my liquor better than they did" (I actually heard a few guys say things like that!) that a lot of teens fall prey to.

[mrs_pell]

Wow...that does seem like a lot for a small school like yours! I'm so sorry!! :(

You know, I know this wouldn't work on a large-scale, but I swear, I plan on making my own [future] children come to work with me one day since I work on a brain injury unit of a rehab hospital so that can see first hand what happens when you you drive drunk, don't wear a helmet, etc. Since working on this unit for the last 2 1/2 years, my own level of caution has changed significantly, and I already felt like I was careful before. But honestly, I think seeing things like that are worse (or better?? More powerful??) than hearing about people dying. The thought of living with an injury like that or having to have your family care for you like that...shitting yourself, drooling all over yourself, etc...is pretty damn scary...much more so than the thought of dying IMO!! Anyway...what I was thinking for your school is trying to find someone who has had a brain injury (and is still not fully recovered) coming to your school with their parents/caregivers, etc. You may be able to contact a local hospital to get you in touch with someone who would be willing. Of, if you send me a PM, I could help you find the closest local brain injury unit.

Anyway, I'm rambling, but it's just a thought. Working on a TBI unit, I see a lot of stupid, stupid shit that boggles the mind! I don't know that there could ever be enough education to stop it, but we can sure try!! :)

[Niobe]

My high school typically had 3-4 fatal accidents a year, but our student body was close to 4k. A good friend of mine was one of the fatal accidents my senior year - he hit a tree drunk just days before graduation. :( The sad fact is, no matter what you do, some people are just going to make stupid, sometimes fatal, decisions. My friend's death has always really gotten to me, because I know that he was a careless driver and that he knew better but would never listen to anyone. I also know that the POS old sports coupe with no airbag that his parents bought him to replace the first car he wrecked driving recklessly wouldn't have protected him had he hit a curb, much less a tree.

Teen driving is such a hard thing. I played designated driver through much of high school to try and keep my reckless friends safe.

France, IIRC, has set the legal drinking age at 14 and the driving age at 18, and from what I've heard has far less incidence of teen drunk driving, as teens have 4 years to get the crazy drinking out of the way before they can drive a car. Something to think about. Maybe we're doing things in the wrong order.