Incline Village High School students said 'goodbye' to about 30 of their friends on Thursday. Fortunately, the simulated deaths are only for a couple of days; but the goal is to teach them a hard life lesson about the reality of driving under the influence.
The video above shows the very realistic DUI scene of the "Every 15 Minutes" Program. Some of the images are graphic.
North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District Release:
The “Every 15 Minutes” program is a school-based alcohol prevention program, essential in
helping to reduce and eliminate alcohol use among adolescents. The two-day program focuses
on high school students, challenging them to think about drinking, driving, personal safety, and
the responsibility of making mature decisions and lastly, the impact their decisions have on
family, friends and their community.
The program brings together a union of local agencies beginning with the Incline High School,
parent volunteers, Washoe County School District, Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, Nevada
Highway Patrol, Nevada Department of Public Safety, retired Judge Janet Berry, Second Judicial
District Court, The National Judicial College, Care Flight, Incline Village Community Hospital,
North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District, Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation, Cornerstone
Community Church, civic clubs and professionals to name a few, who have donated their time
and services to bring this program to fruition.
The two-day program begins with a fatal car crash involving students that attend Incline High
School, on Thursday May 31 st in front of the high school. The entire student body will be escorted
to the scene of the crash and witness firsthand the emergency personnel response, extrication,
treatment and rapid transport of the victims. After returning to class, approximately 25 students
from all grade levels will be pulled out of class every 15 minutes to represent the “living dead”.
These students will have their obituary read aloud, and then removed from class for the
remainder of the day attending a “Student Retreat” where they will listen to speaker presentations
and partake in several activities such as writing their parents a letter saying, “Dear Mom & Dad, I
never got the chance to tell you…” At the end of the retreat, the students will spend the night at
the Cornerstone Community Church and not have any communication with family, friends or the
outside world.
The parents of the “living dead” will also attend a retreat Thursday evening that will include writing
a letter to their deceased child, “I never got the chance to tell you…” They will also hear speaker
presentations.
Day two will include the funeral assembly at the high school gymnasium at 9:46 a.m. featuring
keynote speakers and a video of the entire program depicting the party scene, the car crash, the
courtroom and sentencing, the hospital emergency room and morgue. The video will take the
entire student body and guests through the process of what happens when someone makes the
ultimate wrong decision to drink and drive or get in the car of someone who has been drinking
alcohol. “This program is not warm and fuzzy. It is harsh, real and designed to make a lasting
impact. The shock value is what we’re trying to attain so that our students think twice about
drinking and driving” says Fire Chief Ryan Sommers.
