36 students at El Camino High in Oceanside, California pulled off an elaborate hoax aimed at scaring their fellow classmates straight. If you haven’t heard the story, here’s what reportedly happened. On May 26th a uniform police officer made appearances in several classrooms to notify students that a fellow classmate died in a drunken-driving accident. The officer then proceeded to read a brief eulogy, placed a rose on the deceased’s desk, then turned around and left the students to think about what had happened for the next hour.
The juniors and seniors, after hearing the news, were overwhelmed by emotions. Many began crying and some were near hysterics. At 10:00am the students were lead into the athletic stadium where they found out that their peers had not died at all. There in the stadium, a group of 36 seniors, police officers and firemen staged a fatal car crash—an alcohol related fatal car crash. Those students who were have said to have been killed portrayed ghosts encircling the scene.
As for the students watching all this, they were rightfully confused and angry by the entire hoax.
“When someone says to me, ‘Oh, my God, you’re traumatizing my children,’ I’m telling them, ‘No, what I’m doing is waking them up.’” said California Highway Patrol Officer Eric Newbury, whose father had been killed by a drunk driver. “I want them to be an emotional wreck.”
Some teachers did not take part in the program titled “Every 15 Minutes,” which was designed by MADD. Some of the students that were near hysterics were taken aside and told that in fact their classmates were alive.
So, as a recap, teachers, policemen, and fellow classmates all lied to students at El Camino High to teach them the dangers of drunk driving. Is this a good program? Should we promote lying as a society to teach our children? First Santa, then the Easter Bunny now this—when will it stop? I think a program like this is a slap in the face to students and may teach them not to drink and drive, or it may make them distrustful of authority. Is this program a winner or a loser? Vote now and be heard.
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Comments
Wow...what a stupendously bad idea.
I try to teach my kids that lying is bad, and yet, it's apparently ok for the police and teachers to lie and scare the crap out of their students to convery their message. Sure drunk driving is bad and kills many each year, but surely there is a better way for us to bring the message home.
So if the anti-gun people ran a similar campaign saying that your parents have just been murdered by a stray bullet from a gang-related shooting, it would be acceptable?
Sorry MADD, but I don't buy it. Wrong, wrong, wrong. If anything, I would have gone out to sneak some alcohol to ease the trauma of hearing about my "dead" friend. Dictating what's right or wrong through fear is ineffective. There are other ways.
A very similar program was done at my daughter's high school. It was done without the lying. The students were given notice through morning announcements and posters. There was a huge turnout after school to watch the drama unfold on the football field. There were students crying. My daughter's thoughts was the program would have the biggest inpact on teenagers like her who don't drink.
Welcome to reality people. I dont see this as a problem. These kids today are more into their I-Pods and X-box games than they are about whats going on around them. MADD and the police are trying to get them to think, understand, and feel what it is like to deal with a situation that is completly preventable. Far too often these children think life has a reset button that they can hit when events dont go as planned. Sometimes I wonder if their parents think the same too. Alcohol related accidents are a cruel fact of life. They shouldnt occur but they do. There is no reset button for this and if they got the crap scared out of them, then so be it. When my daughter is old enough, I will make sure she get a full understanding of the consequences associated with drinking and driving and what a responsible individual should do. Ive been on accident scenes way too many times and I can guarantee what MADD and the police did is no means compairable to what happens in the real world. Dont beleive me, talk to a firefighter, a police officer, an ER nurse or doctor. We have been there. In short, this is a small lesson in life for indivduals who are supposed to be adults when they graduate.
Pete - I think your analogy is right on. People would have been furious at the anti-gun lobby.
Look - I lost a close friend around that age, was angry with him then and still think of him frequently. Along those same lines, I would have been extremely angry at MADD, and anticipate those high school kids to feel the same way.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that if this were done to me, it would have had the adverse effect. And now that I think about it, it has: I'm a parent and a worrier, but will no longer support MADD.
As is the case with many "authority" figures when it comes to high school kids, there's simply no respect for them in this.
How ridiculous! I can't believe that this is even a story. But what would one expect from a lib town like SF. I have kids and I know that just telling them something has little effect. They have to see it. Just like you didn't believe your parents when they told you things that were dangerous (when they turned out to be absolutely right), neither do kids now. They need to see it graphically in front of them to understand. Way to Go MADD. Keep it Up!!!
This is not something new! Programs have been going on like this over 15 years and they work. Perhaps your child might be traumatized for a little while, but for God's sake quit babying them. Have you spent much time with 2 or 3 teenagers lately. The drama starts if their friend doesn't text them back in 5 minutes, they talk to their friends like they are enemies. What are you preparing them for? Suck it up. Seriously, how much do they truly take seriously anymore? If your teen thinks it is acceptable to gamble with their life, fine. But to risk other's lives because they don't take drinking and driving seriously, is a VERY traumatic thing. Ask any parent who has lost a child from drunk driving and I guarantee you they would gladly have had their child attend one of these sessions.
Blah, blah, blah...
Wake up. You, your kids, me...everyone is lied to everyday. We're lied to by cops, firemen, politicians, big government, the newspapers, the TV, corporations, doctors...just about everyone lies to you.
If you're tired of the deception, start learning what your rights are. Run for public office. Run for an open bench position in a court. You don't need to be a lawyer to be a judge. Run for Sheriff, you don't need to be a cop to be elected Sheriff.
Throw the bastards out.
Stop patronizing corporations whenever possible. Get out of debt.
Sue MADD, the local PD, and the CHP for "tortious infliction of emotional distress".
I'm just wondering what the reaction would be if MADD showed up in corporate complexes with this same hoax.
"Yes ma'am. Your husband and daughter were killed by a drunk driver."
"Oh, we're just kidding. It's just an exercise and a reminder, don't drink and drive folks!'
Yeah . . . that'd fly.
Why do people insist on trying insane psychological tricks on teen agers who, if you remember your own adolescence, aren't exactly in the most stable place hormonally/emotionally from the get go?
This is stupid. They tried it on us when I was in high school and we saw it coming a mile away. Fun getting out of class, though.
How about MADD teaches kids how to drink responsibly? THERE'S a radical idea for ya.
The problem is the tactics themselves become the story and the controversy--the message is lost in the thunder.
Better idea: Lower the drinking age to 16 or 18 and raise the driving age to 21. Give people a few years to learn how alcohol affects them before handing them the keys to a car.
Dave, I like your idea. Makes perfect sense and would probably never happen although it should.
Rick, thanks for the vote of support. I'm happy to see that you were affected and decided to take action, instead of holding on to the "wake up, get over it" attitude. If you have a problem, you take action, not just sit around passively without looking at the real issue at hand.
Dave and Joshua - those are good, proactive ideas at mitigating the problem at hand. Unfortunately, not enough people embrace this type of approach. I drank as a teen, but had I been talked to about it instead of making alcohol taboo, I'd likely have behaved differently. What a concept, teach responsibility instead of using hollow fear-based tactics that end up falling flat on their face.
Joe, keep on posting, you're doing great.
In the 1960s, Yale psychology professor Stanley Milgram similary deceived and traumatized subjects in a test of obedience to authority. In the study, he convinced people that they were electrocuting a subject in an adjacent room each time he incorrectly answered a test question. More than 2/3 of the subjects complied with the commands to obey, but they were clearly doing so against their will. Did we learn a lot from the study? Absolutely. But this experiment sparked a greater controversy: "Was the outcome worth the cruelty and possible psychological damage to participants? And was is possible to get 'informed consent' in such a study?" The APA decided the answer to each question was "no," and they banned such studies permanently. Did no one involved in this take Psych 101 in college?
The Neo-Prohibitionist fanatics from MADD are nothing more than home grown TERRORISTS.To MADD,our Constitution is no different than a roll of Charmin. They lie to us constantly. Execute one of these lying scumbags on national TV and watch how fast their inflated claims/numbers of “DUI crash fatalities” drops. You can learn the truth at http://www.RIDL.us
Better wake up America, before its too late!!!
I'd like to pull the same stunt on the El Camino police department, maybe brief them at their morning meeting on the death of a fellow officer who was knifed by a heroin dealer with whom he had struck a deal for protection. Does that sound like a good idea? What better way to instruct police officers that they shouldn't take bribes?
I've been there, done that...and like to look at things from all prospectives. On one hand, I can understand MADD for wanting to prevent drinking and driving deaths....some of these members have lost loved ones this way. For the teachers, I'm sure they only had the welfare of their students in mind. Perhaps some of the teachers have lost students to this senseless death in the past and were acting out of love...and the fellow students, who perhaps heard of stories from their teachers were rightfully scared of loosing their friends who take chances with their lives. After all, someone got the ball rolling at that school for a reason. As far as the police, etc. go, they are the ones who have to be first at the scene of these horrific accidents involving children...teens are children...and want it to stop. As a parent, thinking back to when my children were teens, given the option, I would have prefered to scare them straight by using the method described by Mom on June 4. It seemed to have had an impact on the students without the intense trauma. If you've ever seen a play or watched a movie where you really get into it and your emotions soar you know what I'm talking about here....the show makes you think about consequences, and later when you're ever faced with a similar situation, you remember and hopefully act appropriately. Anyone who has experienced severe grief from the SUDDEN loss of a loved one knows what I'm talking about. I've been there and done that...and I was 20 when it happened to my nephew and it was the first time I had to experience the death of a loved on. I'm 56 and if the subject comes up I still have flashbacks that bring me to tears...not good. It was a closed coffin funeral and I stood next to my mother as she demanded the coffin be opened to proved to her that her grandson was really in it...try as they did, the funeral directors could not make my nephew look like himself. As I said, I understand where the adults are coming from....with my nephew, the police were throwing up at the scene, the entire school faculty and student body was traumatized and the funeral line was so long, we had to have police stationed at intersections to keep the traffic flowing...not to mention what it did to our family. The incident was permanently etched in the school yearbook...which was a good idea as a reminder. I realize the people in this program eventually fessed up to the traumatized teens, but by then, these victims have already gone through some really intense suffering...like I said, I've been there. At the moment I got the bad news of my nephew's sudden death, I thought I'd loose my mind the grief was so bad. Bottom line...poor judgement on the adults part in this...the teens acted out of teen emotions, which is exactly my point. Teens are very emotional, easily lead and easily traumatized. I think psychiatrists and psychiatric social workers should have been consulted about this before implementing it...and what about the parents of these traumatized children? I have a feeling the program would have been changed to let all the students in on the hoax. Bye-the-way, even after telling about my nephew's death to my children in graphic detail, one of them wound up being a drunk driver...thank God he never had a accident or hurt anyone and is now clean and sober...I believe my prayers as a mother kept him and all around him safe.
An Open Letter:
To Ms. Lori Taubor, and to all involved in planning the death hoax at El Camino High School,
Nine years ago, my best friend from elementary school was killed along with his sister, in a car accident. The driver of their vehicle (who survived) was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs at the time. The driver hit a parked car at 80 mph.
I myself do not drink alcohol, nor do I use drugs. I do not get in a car with a person who has had even one drink. I detest drinking and driving.
What I detest equally are abuses by authority - and if what I read in the press today was true - I believe the hoax designed by El Camino High School was abusive to the students there.
I am truly sickened your scheme to traumatize high school students by telling them that their friends had died. I can only assume you thought only of your intended psychological effect: That some day, when faced with a “drinking and driving” scenario, these students will think back to the day when they thought their friends died. I hope it saves a life.
It seems that you have not thought of the unintended psychological effect of such trauma. Because you knew that the deaths did not occur, you were insulated from the reality that these students faced until they were told the truth. You couldn’t fully put yourself in their place. Perhaps this is what clouded your judgment.
Of course, one cannot predict all of the psychological consequences of your hoax. Each student who was tricked into thinking that fellow classmates were dead will be affected differently. Some may blow it off. Others may have difficulty sleeping. Some may be afraid to get in a car for a while. But, most importantly, to many, this could have been the first person they knew personally who died. (Yes, the students really didn’t die, it was just a temporary lie. Again I stress that in the minds of the abused students, your lie was a reality. That was the point, right?) Did someone planning the hoax ever think that this might be a student’s first and/or most personal encounter with death? Another thought: what if a student immediately called a victim’s family, after hearing the news? How would that conversation go?
What is more certain is that many of these students have now learned to distrust their teachers, administrators/counselors, and police officers. Those directly involved in the hoax (Ms. Taubor, etc) do not deserve their trust. Unfortunately, it is likely that more worthy authority figures will be looked upon with suspicion. Plus, in the days of Columbine-like tragedies, why would you reduce your credibility when there could be a real life and death emergency? In that unlikely situation, the students would need to trust you with their safety, and not assume that you’re running another hoax. In this way, you have, stupidly, cried wolf. Maybe you should apologize to the students and let them know you don’t plan on tricking them about life and death situations any more.
Perhaps you are still justifying your hoax. If the Associated Press story is accurate, you are. Well then, why not take the scare tactics to the next level. Here’s the next one for you - Lori, you can even take credit for the idea: Why not mandate a blood test for every student, and not tell him or her why. Then, hold an assembly the following week and tell the students that 50% of the tests turned out HIV positive. Have an authority figure, e.g. doctor or public health official, say that there has been an abnormally high incidence in San Diego County, and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) is coming to investigate. Antiretroviral drugs will be available for those infected. Students will cry. Students will Google HIV+ to see how long they can live with the disease. Students will try to be comforted by the fact that Magic Johnson has survived since 1992. After the students are released back to their classes, (here comes the punch line) Principal Daris can come on the PA and tell them it was all just a joke. He could say, “We really want you to practice safe sex, through abstinence, or protection. What if you really had HIV? Now you know what the diagnosis would feel like.”
Your death hoax is just as sick and cruel as my example above. The only difference is that the fatal diagnosis in your scenario was given to a friend, but in my example, it is given directly to the student.
Better yet, why not do the exact same thing you did to your high school students to area elementary school students? Why not trick an 8 year old into believing that his or her friend (or mom) has been killed by a drunk driver. Then let him or her off the hook after some time. Why not do this? Is your answer is that the 8 years old is too young? Too young for what? Damage? Trauma? Then at what age can we traumatize minors to teach them lessons? I guess you have decided high school age is the right time.
Here’s a final illustration. About 200,000 hospital deaths occur each year due to medical errors. 200,000 vs. approx 17,000 drunk driving fatalities in 2005. I am not trivializing any of these deaths. Accidental deaths are horrible, no matter what the cause. I bring up the ratio only to illustrate that medical errors are an epidemic equal to or greater than drunk driving. I ask you this: would you be in support of hospital administrators telling physicians and nurses that they lost a patient due to an error, only to tell them later that the patient had in fact survived. It was merely the El Camino High School trick, adapted to help convince them to reduce medical errors. Physicians, nurses, administrators, and even patients would be outraged.
Of course, there are numerous ways to attempt to get the message to young adults about the dangers of drunk driving. For example, I could have come to the school and told the story about my friend. I would have cried, and so would many students. Or, perhaps have a person who killed someone while DUI talk about their personal consequences. Perhaps storytelling, for this purpose, has been proven ineffective. Perhaps you viewed your trick as a clever, more potent. It certainly was. Frankly, I suspect it gave you a sense of power. You may argue that those other methods of teaching also play on the emotions of minors, just through a milder form of trauma. I would agree. But here’s the overall point to my letter: You swung the pendulum too far. It went from “show Red Asphalt” to “fake deaths.” Put simply, you were bullying the students.
I’ll close this letter now. You can talk amongst yourselves about what an arrogant and misinformed citizen I am to condemn the way you “educate” young people in this country. Well, I do condemn your hoax. Your unproven ends do not justify the abusive means. I’ve never written a letter like this before…but I’ve never before read about school administrators abusing students in an organized way.
It should be pointed out that the program implemented at El Camino High School May 26, 2008, was not designed by MADD. MADD’s Statement About the School Program “Every 15 Minutes” (6.5.2008) “Every 15 Minutes” is not and has never been a MADD school outreach program, nor was it designed by MADD... More details can be found at: http://www.madd.org/Media-Center/Media-Center/Press-Releases/PressView.aspx?press=131
Also, the program: "Every 15 Minutes" http://www.every15minutes.com/aboutus/index.html
is very different from what happened at El Camino High School. I urge readers to look at the "Every 15 Minutes" website for themselves. Briefy,the "Every 15 Minutes" exercise to make students aware of the dangers of drinking and driving requires training for the school staff, students are tagged by the "Grim Reaper" as dying in an alcohol related auto accident, however, they do not leave the school. The student wears an "Every 15 Minutes" shirt the rest of the day and does not speak or participate, thus other students do not suffer the loss of their classmate physically. I read about "Every 15 Minutes" and it appears to be a good program. I wonder if El Camino High School opted for this ill-fated short-cut because it would take less time and be less effort?
The "Open Letter" by SG had very strong points. It should be mailed to the school.
What would you suggest Joeprah that Californians do when 15-19 year olds are the worse drivers out there and over 20,000 ide every year due to traffic collisions many are dui related. I like the idea of raising the driving age but that means that parents will have to take a more active life in raising their kids taking them every where they need to go. Why should people give a damn what a "Stay at home dad" thinks anyway?
Tony - why is it a bad thing that parents would have to take a more active life in raising their kids?
sg-Parents takign a more active role is exactly my point it is not a bad thing it is paramount. The plain truth is we as a society do not spend enough time with our kids teaching them leaving it up to other parental stand-ins.
I see - sorry Tony, I misunderstood.
SG
Yes, i really argee that, because of this ,many life's will spoile dude this at least they must take care
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I think Every 15 Minutes is actually an excellent program. My high school has always staged an accident just before prom and began doing Every 15 Minutes my sophomore year. I didn't go to the best school, but we also had almost no tragedies like a real accident after the programs were implemented. My graduating class was even extremely upset when they didn't allow us to do the Every 15 Minutes part of the program our senior year. It makes a huge impact, far bigger than just an assembly telling us to be safe. Yes, it is rattling. It's designed to be. They're trying to scare the bejesus out of the students so they understand just how huge an impact one stupid decision can have. Teens feel invincible and have to be shown in a safe, believable but still effective manner that they're not. They're just flesh and blood like everyone else, and when bodies break, they die. They need to be shown death is REAL and PERMANENT. But was the program implemented in the best way? Perhaps not this time.
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