It's Prom Time...

And with annual Prom's, come many school districts that set up and perform "Mock Crashes" for the seniors who are about to attend their Senior Prom.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about...many communities, will sponsor and set up a "Mock" car crash, within the week that proceeds the Prom. It will show a couple or more cars that are smashed into each other, smoking, with or without fellow seniors playing as "actors" in this docudrama...and they would be "Moulaged", meaning, they will have blood, bones sticking out of them, etc. Usually, a school would bring the Senior Class out of school to observe the moments immediately following the crash, through watching Police, Fire, EMS arriving on scene, cutting cars open with Jaws of life, removing their injured fellow-students, and putting them into ambulances and seeing those ambulances leave the scene. In the Mock Crashes I've been involved in (including one that I was in charge of), we had at least 1 student (usually a popular student), dead on scene, for everyone to see, and another one to be given a sobriety test, and then hand-cuffed, and put into a Police Cruiser, and taken away. The rest of the "patients" are all screaming and moaning and bleeding and in agony. Oh...don't forget the beer bottles that are spread on the ground, or fall out of the car when a door is opened.

As someone coordinating, or even taking part, in the exercise, will tell you, it's pretty moving. But seriously, what impact, if any, does it have on the students that are watching???

I have made it a point during a number of Mock Crashes that I have participated in, to keep an eye on the audience, to gauge their reactions. And I have grouped the kids into a few categories.

There are those that laugh...because they know it's fake, and they are the ones who party hard, and think "that would never happen to me".

There are those that cry...because they know it's a reality, but those few don't drink and drive, so they feel pity towards those that do.

There are those that talk during the whole thing...because they're just glad that they're outside, instead of being in Math Class. They fall into the drinker and non-drinker category.

There are those who just stand there and watch. And show no emotion. To me...those are the VERY FEW who this Mock Crash is made for. To me, those are the ones that could be "on the fence", or who like to drink, but this is making drinking-and-driving a reality for them. Or, even, some who have dealt with some sort of alcohol related accident in their life, so it makes them relive it.

Do I think these things really "touch" the majority of students? No, not at all.

Does it matter? No, not at all. Because seriously...if setting up this exhibit (which doesn't happen overnight), and getting everything and everyone in place, and pulling it off as was intended...if all of this hard work keeps ONE SINGLE teenager from drinking and driving...then isn't that worth it??? I think it is.

Oh...and, just because I'm morbid and like to make an impact...in the one Mock Crash that I was in charge of...the students got to see the most popular girl in the Senior Class, dead on scene, and then through a little bit of trickery and such, they got to see her wheeled away in a body-bag, and put into a hearse, and driven away (there are some guidelines about putting a LIVE person into a body-bag that we had to follow, but they kids didn't know the difference). That, to me, may have captured one or two more kids that we didn't have before.

I hope all schools have a safe Prom season. I know they won't...but hopefully, the one or two people that are affected by these Mock-Crashes, will think twice before getting behind the wheel if they've been drinking.