"It hit me really hard in my heart because you could really feel what it would be like," one student said.
View full sizeLaFayette Junior/Senior High School students attend a mock funeral Friday, seeing reflections of themselves in a mirror placed inside an open casket. It was part of an event held as the same day as the junior prom to discourage underage drinking and to remind students to make good choices.
LaFayette, NY -- This is the first time LaFayette Junior-Senior High School has sponsored a mock DWI crash program in the district, and the effect on students Friday morning was powerful.
“We really saw the impact making certain choices can have and the totality of what can happen,’’ said Nicholas Lamson, 17, a senior. :If you’re watching an anti-DWI movie you feel that separation, but when it’s happening 20 to 25 feet from you, it makes it as real as possible.
Heather Amidon, a health education teacher at the high school and adviser to the Teen Institute, said the students spent a year planning the morning-long event. They were helped by Tully schools, which has sponsored the program in the past.
LaFayette’s program had special meaning, as their prom is tonight at Highland Forest.
The event involved a two-vehicle crash where a group of students had been drinking and caused the crash, with a mannequin in the second car “killed” in the accident. The event also included a relative of someone killed in a DWI accident, and a mock funeral where students paraded by an open casket and looked into a mirror inside the head of the casket to see their own faces.
“There was one point where I actually started crying,’’ said 16-year-old Devon Knapp, a junior. “It hit me really hard in my heart because you could really feel what it would be like. And everyone was quiet and focused on what was going on.”
Junior Kelsey Nash, 17, said the event showed how how so many other people are affected by a tragedy. She believes the message will live on with students at the prom and throughout their lives.
All juniors and seniors and any underclassmen attending the prom were required to attend the program, Amidon said.