TheAgitator.com
Absolute MADDness
Saturday, May 31st, 2008Many juniors and seniors were driven to tears – a few to near hysterics – May 26 when a uniformed police officer arrived in several classrooms to notify them that a fellow student had been killed in a drunken-driving accident.
The officer read a brief eulogy, placed a rose on the deceased student’s seat, then left the class members to process their thoughts and emotions for the next hour.
The program, titled “Every 15 Minutes,” was designed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Its title refers to the frequency in which a person somewhere in the country dies in an alcohol-related traffic accident.
About 10 a.m., students were called to the athletic stadium, where they learned that their classmates had not died. There, a group of seniors, police officers and firefighters staged a startlingly realistic alcohol-induced fatal car crash. The students who had purportedly died portrayed ghostly apparitions encircling the scene.
Though the deception left some teens temporarily confused and angry, if it makes even one student think twice before getting behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated, it is worth the price, said California Highway Patrol Officer Eric Newbury, who orchestrates the program at local high schools.
What the hell is wrong with these people?
Has MADD never been sued. I would think at least one person has been traumitized by this horrow.
How is this NOT child abuse?!!!
You obviously aren’t familiar with the guiding rule for all such crusades.
If it saves only one life, it will have been worth it.
It helps relieve them of any guilt they might be faced with as a result of strategy totally devoid of ethics.
Lord help them if they ever do this to one of my kids.
I lost two of my seniors in a late-night car accident just last week (no evidence yet that alcohol was involved). Having seen first-hand what real death does to these kids, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to do this to them. Even I, having seen my kids in their caskets, thought for a moment, “Hey, maybe they’re not dead. Maybe this was a MADD stunt that lasted a little too long.”
When one of their kids is actually hurt in an accident, how will these kids respond? “Oh, it’s probably just another of Newbury’s pranks.”
They shouldn’t be doing this.
There are so many well meaning goddamned fools using school programs to play with the emotions of minor children:
- Sex education experts who REQUIRE children to talk about sexual matters, whether they want to or not.
- Environmentalists who, having neither actual evidence nor the ability to present it rationally if they had, resort to scaring children into believing their confused religion.
- Anti-smoking zealots who go far beyond any evidence, and terrify children that if their parents smoke they are due to drop dead momentarily.
- and now these pious twits.
Perhaps it is for the best that I don’t have any kids, because if I did and a bunch of blathering nitwits pulled something like this on one of them, I would reintroduce the fine old custom of horsewhipping the principal when the school did something egregiously stupid.
This could certainly be grounds for a lawsuit. One of the earliest types of cases to recognize a claim for emotional distress was the “mistaken telegram” claim, in which the victim receives erroneous notification that a family member has died. But of course, we all know that the government plays by special rules.
The moral, kids, is “never trust a cop.”
In that sense, at least, I think this was good education. These students have begun to learn: If a cop tells you the sky is blue, check for yourself, then get an attorney to check as well.
“if it makes even one student think twice … it is worth the price”
cool. that is soooo cool that a cop and a bunch of strangers are willing to determine what price i can afford. i wonder if we could cut off everyone’s trigger finger … that seems like a small price to pay to stop gun violence.
This makes one thing (that we all already knew) crystal clear: lying and deception is perfectly acceptable to these people. Remember that about everything they say and do.
People should remember this story the next time we hear about the “tragedy” of a police officer killed in the line of duty.
Geez, Radley, you should have posted this part of the story:
“Though the deception left some teens temporarily confused and angry, if it makes even one student think twice before getting behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated, it is worth the price, said California Highway Patrol Officer Eric Newbury, who orchestrates the program at local high schools.
“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 Newbury, whose father was killed by a drunken driver.
“If you don’t do your job as a parent … the only thing I can do is either arrest them and take them to jail or scrape them off the ground and tell you, ‘I’m so sorry.’ ”
Standard speeches don’t usually get the desired reaction, Newbury said.
“If I sit there and lecture somebody in a nice way, it’s going to go in one ear and out the other,” he said. “In today’s world, where they have all sorts of gore and fantastic things that kids can access on the computer, if you want to compete with that, you have to jar them emotionally.
“I want them to be an emotional wreck. I don’t want them to have to live through this for real.”
“I want them to be an emotional wreck.” If this guy has children of his own, I’d send an army of social workers to emotionally wreck his life.
My daughter used to come home and spout all sorts of propaganda she was subjected to at her school (D.A.R.E. Environment Groups, etc.). I taught her to question what she was being told in these sorts of situations and decide for herself. The facts can be found with some proper research and we both enjoyed spending time together, debunking some of the more bizarre things that are taught at her school.
She also has been taught to be very wary of government officials (police officers especially). Not afraid of them, just mindful that they have their own agenda, and can use information given to them to do bad things sometimes. I don’t want her to hate police officers, just be extremely wary of their intentions.
This has been going on since at least 1999. I remember the accompanying skit on the quad — performed after we’d learned that in fact none of our friends were dead…today — was hilarious, but I also remember that joints were being passed around the audience at the time. How’s that for pseudo-ironic.
I’m reminded of these “scared straight” things were cops will conduct a mock drug-raid on a high school. They’re trying to indoctrinate kids to get used to a police/nanny state — to get used to a society that treats everyone like a child.
“I want them to be an emotional wreck” = slam dunk lawsuit.
Shouldn’t this guy at least get permission slips from parents that they would like their child to experience this kind of ordeal? What if one of these kids goes into shock, or experiences an asthma attack? This guy is talking about the value of making *one* child *think twice* about *getting behind the wheel*. Not necessarilly preventing one accident or one death, just making someone hesitate before making a poor decision that is very likely not to actually harm anyone.
It’s sad that this guy’s father died, but in all honesty, what’s worse is that his father was unable to not raise a spine-crushing moron.
If fatalities caused by drunk-driving were as common as MADD and company would like you to believe, they would be able to use real dead kids to make their “point.” Hmmm…..
Now that I think about it… Using fear against innocent people to advance a political agenda. There’s a word for that. It begins with the letter “T,” if I recall.
“i wonder if we could cut off everyone’s trigger finger … that seems like a small price to pay to stop gun violence.”
God, I wish you hadn’t expressed that. You just can’t joke with these people. They are completely satire proof, because there is no absurdity they will not blindly commit in pursuit of their disgusting agenda.
Skeppie, that’s an excellent point. I’m old enough to remember a time when drunken driving was taken fairly lightly, and it wasn’t too hard to find examples of the dangers. Now, it’s a little more difficult, because we don’t tolerate it and most people know better.
It seems to me that most of the “damage” done by drinking and driving these days is done by our overzealous pursuit of prosecuting it.
I’d also like to say the comments at the end of the article make some very good points — how about the IRS send out letters demanding $100,000 in back taxes every so often, then send another letter a few days later saying, “sorry, just kidding, but this should teach you not to cheat on your taxes.” No harm, no foul right? Maybe the police can come to our house and tell us a loved one died in a drunken driving accident, then come back and tell us an hour later it was all a ruse. That’ll sure teach us a lesson.
I think the children of the organizers of this attack on our children should to be told that their parent was killed while conducting a a no knock raid on an innocent citizen.
After all if it makes even one of them know how corrupt their parent is then it is worth it.
Oh goody, now can we get the fuzz to come around and stage equivalent theater encouraging students to, say, not join the army?
//This makes one thing (that we all already knew) crystal clear: lying and deception is perfectly acceptable to these people. Remember that about everything they say and do.//
That’s a message that needs to get spread among the student body. With luck, it might help some of the students escape the Liberal Mind Fog that the schools are trying to impart.
“Now that I think about it… Using fear against innocent people to advance a political agenda. There’s a word for that. It begins with the letter “T,” if I recall.”
Does it rhyme with the letter “P” which stands for POOL HALL!
MADD is a dangerous, puritanical and prohibitionist organization. It must be stopped.
Regardless of whether MADD’s tactics are acceptable or not, we need to free people from the obligation of using their car whether they are prepared to drive or not. Far fewer drunks would drive if they had the luxury to wait it out. We’ve got to end the slavery-based system, with us since before the Romans, that manifests itself in property taxes and rigid scheduling of the workforce.
Stuff like this makes me glad I have no children … I can imagine raising kids in the modern US.
I meant “can’t”
When I was in high school, we did something somewhat similar. Throughout the school day, every certain number of minutes (I don’t think it was 15, something longer than that) someone would come on the announcement system to say that a certain student had been killed by a drunk driver. That student would then have a placard or something to let people know and wasn’t supposed to talk for the rest of the day.
The crucial difference was that the entire school was told that this was going to happen at the beginning of the day. It still definitely made people think about it more, wasn’t too much of an interruption, and didn’t cause incredible emotional stress. Of course, there were a handful of students who missed the morning announcements…
Sick fuckers with their “the ends justify the means” mentality. I wonder how far you take the loose connection of dots under that style of thinking. And how ironic that they have one of the best liars do the job, a cop. Fucking pig with no morals, “I’m just doing my job”.
During my 12 year tenure as a pastor I “preached” three funerals of teenagers, all killed in auto accidents.
One was a 14 year old who stoled a car.
One was a 17 year old passenger in his friend’s car.
One was an 18 year old who (apparently) committed suicide.
All involved high speeds or wreckless driving. None involved alcohol.
http://www.endiana.com
Sounds like lawsuit time.
I’m thinking “Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress”.
I remember in HS they pulled something similar, but the kids just got to wear black clothes and face paint to make them look dead, or at least more zombie like. Mainly honor roll kids, student body leadership, and Just Say No folks. Every so often another kid got to run to the drama room, splash some makeup, and come out dead. They weren’t allowe do talk or interact (which made my Physics lab a royal pain that day). Problem was, they blended in with the goth kids. Almost appeared that the Cure had dressed the school that day.
Stupid tricks. Thank jeebus they didn’t do that stunt then. What if the stunt lead to a suicide of another kid??? Teens are emotional wrecks as it is, ya know!
Few more things to add:
1) Were the children’s parent’s notified this was going to happen (likely not)?
2) Were the parent’s of the “dead” child in on it?
3) How was the “dead” child approached to play “dead”? Was it a random drawing? The child’s idea? Who approached who?
4) This “I will raise your child for you” mentality is WRONG. Sure, lots of parents don’t do their job, but it’s not government’s place to play surrogate. How appropriate that this all took place in a government indoctrination camp (AKA public school).
5) Is the next step for cops to do this in your neighborhood? I think for now they wouldn’t DARE to try, which is why it takes place in the government indoctrination camp.
I’d love to know how many many people this classroom cop has scraped off the road… the ones that make the most noise do the least work. I’ve been working in EMS for 20 years, 11 at a high volume service… I had some tragic calls, but nothing like the crap these clowns spew at us. I’ve definitely never felt the urge to go scare the hell out of a bunch of people to further some safety agenda. I’m guessing I’ve been on 15,000 911 calls and maybe 5% were bad… even fewer still were fatal or permanently damaged. That’s about par for the industry.
I bet this guy is heading up the car seat cartel and the seatbelt compliance squad, too. For the greater good!
On May 18, 2008 in N.C.,at approximately 11:20 P.M. Sunday night, Brandon Craver, age 18 and a high school Senior due to graduate in June of this year, was killed when the motorcycle he was riding home (within two miles of home) left the road in a sudden downpour of rain, hit a culvert, throwing him into a power pole then his body onto the pavement of a rural road. Another vehicle, not knowing what had just occurred, could NOT STOP in time and hit his still-alive body. In spite of this, Brandon still tried to speak to rescue personnel on the scene. He died a few hours later in the early morning hours on May 19, 2008. Brandon was also a senior volunteer firefighter. His department and colleagues responded to this call. Brandon had just taken and passed the agility test the previous day to become a paid firefighter for our city fire department.
This was NOT a ‘drill’ or ’staged scene’. This was reality in the worst way.
My son, his classmate, and Brandon’s other classmates suffered and grieved immensely.
The depression I am seeing my son and others go through is indescribable. These kids will NEVER get over this completely. I witnessed their pain. It was and still is horrific.
To ’stage’ an incident to provoke or invoke a response such as the one described in this article is incomprehensible, unethical, unprofessional, unwarranted and unforgiveable.
One would imagine that these supposedly educated people could have used creativity other than the one they chose to get their POINT across. Just a note, I am a former paramedic of 7 years. I only THOUGHT I had heard and seen just about everything until now.
By the way, there was NO ALCOHOL, DRUGS or other aggravating factors other than the fact he was caught in a cloudburst of rain, involved in Brandon’s accident.
[...] tip: The Agitator, and also Skip Olivia, as I lifted the terrorism analogy from his [...]
Question for everyone - what would happen if students did this to each other?
To Thomas Paine’s Goiter:
Good question. I would love to be a FLY on the wall if they ’staged’ an ‘accident’ or posed your question to Brandon Craver’s family, classmates and fellow volunteer firefighters.
These people would love nothing MORE than to answer it and for this to have all been a dream.
I bet the same school officials are sitting in their office trying to figure out why parents are pulling their kids out of their district to put them in private schools or homeschooling.
To Packratt:
As a parent, I would have to pt my kid on another planet since I would be ashamed to have him think that this is the way HUMANS are supposed to act.
[...] just saw this story (hat tip). Mother’s Against Drunk Driving has managed to institute some sort of campaign in [...]
radley, if this makes you nauseus, then how did the Johnson case make you feel?
Judi,
Oh, sometimes I wish we could do that too… but, our duty to our children as parents includes helping them understand that people do things like this in the real world and be there to help them understand why it’s unacceptable in a way that helps them develop their own critical thinking skills and a strong sense of personal ethics and individual responsibility.
It’s not enough for them to be told something is wrong, but also to understand why it is so.
That other adults, especially the ones we entrust to teach our children their life’s lessons in out stead, would seek to show them that ends justify means and that those means would include such blatantly disturbing psychological manipulations and outright falsehoods and deceptions is despicable… but this story too is a lesson for my children: that some people will go to any lengths to project their own miseries onto others in the name of self-righteousness.
(and I am sorry to hear of Brandon’s story, the world’s loss of a good soul touches many others)
I didn’t realize that high school kids were so emotionally fragile. You guys just aren’t happy unless you have something to complain about.
“I didn’t realize that high school kids were so emotionally fragile.”
So in other words you’re a moron? What, do you think high school is a time of particular emotional stability and maturity?
I would trust a high-schooler to choose to not drink and drive to the point of being a danger, over trusting one to not be significantly traumatized after believing a close friend had just died.
Also, chance, you’re on a website called “The Agitator,” maybe you should go hang out at holdnooneaccountablecuzitsnothtatbigadeal.com
Where’s our litigious society when it’s needed?
//I didn’t realize that high school kids were so emotionally fragile. You guys just aren’t happy unless you have something to complain about.//
The stated purpose of the exercise was to cause emotional distress. In the lawsuit I hope will be filed, such statement of purpose would make it rather hard for Mr. Newbury to argue that the students’ distress was a result of unreasonable emotional fragility.
To Packratt, Thank you.
To chance: Well DUH!@#$ You should have been at Brandon’s funeral last week…that would really have kept you amused. High school kids are hovering between leaving their childhood behind and taking that leap into adulthood. This alone is frightening, especially in our world as it is today.
To Nick T: I like your style…
I, for one, welcome our new fake-traffic-accident-death staging overlords.
P.S.
To Radley and others who asks the question, “What the hell is wrong with these people?”
It is called neuro-flatulence. A version I coined.
chance - You’re a dick.
If this was one of MY kids the lawyer would be working the weekend to have the notice of claim done for serving Monday morning. Sue the school district, the school board and the members individually. Find out who the district risk management geek is and sue him, because he’s collecting taxpayer money under false pretenses. This is the kind of crap he’s supposed to stop, for Christsake.
Sue the principal and every adult in the school that knew about this and failed to keep it from happening. Sue the CHP and every badge involved in this fiasco. Sue MADD and every chapter officer as individuals.
Make it clear to the school district that any out-of-court settlement includes termination of the principal. No bennies, no golden handshake, just out the door with a boot sideways in his rectum.
Make it clear to the principal that he’s now my little bitch. If I want to dress him as a leatherboy and auction his butt off at the Blue Oyster Bar, it’s gonna happen and he’d better learn to enjoy it. Otherwise his family will set up housekeeping in a refrigerator box.
Make it clear to the CHP that I want the badges of every skunk pig involved. No one gets to pull stunts like this under color of law.
Make it clear to MADD that their only hope to come out of this with their bank accounts intact is to disband the chapter, sign over the assets, and never ever again form another terrorist organization.
Doing the car crash DUI thing with the quarterback and the cheerleader in mulage is one thing. Falsely telling students their friends are dead is something else entirely.
Gee FRANK, will you marry me? Well at least let me take you out to lunch!
LOL
Very well stated and I SECOND the motion and ADD an hearty AMEN!
I wonder how Officer Eric Newbury or Counselor Lori Tauber would react if someone called them at work and inform them a loved one had just been killed.
Would they find it to be learning experience, to teach them to cherish their loved ones more… or more likely cruel and perverse harassment?
CHPs. Jeez.
Once, when I was going to school in CA, I got stalled in the middle (left-turn lane) of a six-lane highway thanks to a bad alternator. I was very near my college, but it was a really dicey situation nonetheless.
A CHiPs guy rolls up behind me and demands to know what the hell I thought I was doing. I told him I needed a tow in a big hurry or there would be an accident. When he realized he wasn’t in a position to ticket me, but to actually help me, he got this spooked look on his face and bolted back to his car. I begged him to call in a tow-truck but his only response was “Hey, that’s not my job. You need to find a phonebooth and make the call yourself.”
And as he sped away, he left me with this priceless gem:
“Oh, and try not to get smeared crossing the highway.”
Fucker. Good thing my buddy drove up and gave me a boost.
That was a really frightening situation alleviated NOT AT ALL by the CHP department.
In retaliation, a student should have gone to the guidance councelor the next day and said that, due to the distress of yesterday’s events, a friend had taken their own life. After letting her sweat for a few minutes, the student could then say “oooooops, just jokin’.” That would be sweet.
Another reason for home schooling.
Someone should find one of the police officers who participate in the program that as a family member serving in the military. And then tell him that his brother died a horrible death at the hands of Iraqi insurgents. After all if it prevents just one kid from joining the military and becoming a bullet sponge then it’s worth it.
Is a cop ever the one to go to a school and tell whole classrooms of kids when there is a real death? I assume that it is never done this way when a real fatality has occurred.
Just want to know if I am safe to go ahead and tell my son that if anything like this ever happens in his school, he can assume it is bullshit from the very start. And he can tell everyone else as well.
When real deaths occur, it is usually the guidance staff that has the duty of informing the whole school, not just one classroom.
Cops tell next of kin.
As a generality, everything said by authorities should be taken with a box of Morton’s. You might end up distrutsting a few factual things but you will save a whole lot of time and money spent believing spin and bull
The Every 15 Minutes program is not a secret and there is no deception. The students know the program is going on, they just don’t know which students were “selected” or volunteered to be victims. Come on, you think they really made a fake notification, read a eulogy, and placed a rose on a desk and the kids believed it was real? I thought you were smart.
//The Every 15 Minutes program is not a secret and there is no deception. The students know the program is going on, they just don’t know which students were “selected” or volunteered to be victims.//
That may be the way the program is supposed to be implemented. That doesn’t mean that’s how it was handled in this particular case.
//Come on, you think they really made a fake notification, read a eulogy, and placed a rose on a desk and the kids believed it was real? I thought you were smart.//
If Skip Oliva’s quote from Officer Newbury is accurate, “I want them to be an emotional wreck. I don’t want them to have to live through this for real,” it would seem entirely plausible that he decided to ‘enhance’ the program by getting rid of the advance notifications.
If someone goes on record as saying he intends to cause emotional distress, how is it not his own fault if he succeeds?
Patrick - “Though the deception left some teens temporarily confused and angry.”
You were saying?
Officer Newberry stated in his interview: “I want them to be an emotional wreck. I don’t want them to have to live through this for real.”
As I stated earlier, my son and his classmates REALLY lost a classmate, Brandon, just two weeks ago TODAY…from a motorcycle accident in which NO DRUGS OR ALCOHOL were involved. This young man was due to graduate from high school June 9, 2008. He was also a volunteer firefighter.
“EMOTIONAL WRECK?” What I’d give to have Brandon back and not have his family, classmates, friends and fellow firefighters be an “EMOTIONAL WRECK”.
Their REAL GRIEF is beyond words. I pray they do not hear of this story.
Obviously Officer Newberry doesn’t have children and has never suffered a devastating loss such as this one. If he had children, he would be the parent who beats them daily with a belt to let them know what will happen if they misbehave….DUH!
School counselor Lori Tauber stated: “I just know in my heart this was worth it.”
What heart?
And we wonder why kids don’t trust adults. I know the answer…because most adults are idiots…especially those given authority…like teachers, couselors, and cops.
these people are terrorists and should be tortured.
Personally I think it was good for the kids….Children need to face some of the harsh realities of the world in a controlled environment. All these parents that are afraid to see their children in some type of distress or situation, or afraid to do something so simple as actually punishing them (Time outs are not punishments) are doing their children nothing but a disservice. The Reality is the world can be and quite often is a dangerous, cruel, and disquieting place riddled with turmoil and conflict. The sooner the children learn to deal with such in a manner that promotes positive thinking and action the better.
This program does just that if they are aware of what might happen, could happen and how it feels to be in that situation then for goodness sake, what is wrong with it? All you griping is just another example of political correctness and governmental programming. Learn to think for yourselves, learn to educate your children and this kinda stunt wouldn’t be necessary.
There’s got to be some way to get PETA and MADD in a stadium and have them shoot each other to death….
[...] classrooms to notify them that a fellow student had been killed in a drunken-driving accident. The officer read a brief eulogy, placed a rose on the deceased student’s seat, then left the class… - Here’s the punch line the ish is fake. WTF are they [...]
you guys are all fucking idiots….. this is whats wrong with the world, or at least america, today… everyone gets all worked up over mundane, trivial bullshit! They did the same thing when i was in highschool over 5 years ago, and it didnt traumatize anyone, with todays kids attention span at almost nothing, police/teachers/society are being forced to change the way they do/taught life lessons. The film shown in drivers ed class back in the day that showed footage from actual fatal car accidents, including bodies that had been burned and decapitated and whatnot, THAT is much more traumatizing then letting a few drama students ACT out a fatal DUI crash in front of the entire school…. all of the vehicles in the act are completely stationary and staged in the positions they are shown to the students in, there is NO risk of anyone actually getting hurt… it is simply an innovative way to try and pound home the idea of not drinking and driving…. so lighten up everyone and stop getting offended by every little friggin thing that might “emotionally scar” your little johnny… (who’s probably off getting high and killing shit tons of citizens with his buddies on their new game, GTA IV….. if you wanna get worked up over something traumatic… try that shit, or maybe the show COPS)
Meh!
Having seen both sides of this situation it is really worth it. The 15 minutes program does work, and does not overly traumatize kids. Most of these programs are being done to high school juniors and seniors who at high risk for drinking and driving, not elementary or middle schoolers. Also having had friends that have died from drunken drivers if some discomfort saves a life it is worth it. Are you so afraid of discomfort that you want to sue those who are trying to save your children. The sheer fact that you are reacting this way demonstrates what is wrong with America, they may have taken the program a little far but even still that is not a reason to sue them. The cop is right I want to you go and tell some parent that they lost their child because you were afraid your child would be uncomfortable in school.
god you folks are a bunch of idiots, this what is wrong with this country.
A lawsuit for this? what actual harm has been done? Its lawsuits like these that should be forbidden. It’s just greedy, lazy people who want to strip more money from others. Get a life already. I actually wish they’d spread a program like this elsewhere.
You can’t put your kids in a fricken bubble and then spas out when life actually happens to them. The comments on here have been pathetic.
MADD is going to loose their credibility real fast with stunts like this. If my kids were at the school, I hope some parents start calling the local chapter of MADD with made-up stories about the worker’s kids and parents, “May I speak with _____? Please have h/er/im call the MRSA Chief Hospital right away. It’s about his precious snowflake.”
It’s the parent’s job to teach the kids this stuff. If I want my kids taught this, I’ll stage my own family drama!
“Though the deception left some teens temporarily confused and angry, if it makes even one student think twice before getting behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated, it is worth the price, said California Highway Patrol Officer Eric Newbury, who orchestrates the program at local high schools.”
I think it will simply reinforce what this generation already knows: Police/authority figures are manipulative liars who are not worthy of any respect.
Well, we know this program didn’t get the best reaction when simulating a drunken car wreck…Maybe next time we could stage the same activity at random strangers’ houses.
Tell a woman her partner just died and won’t be home for supper…a father, that his little boy was killed on his way home from school! Better still…let’s go walk the halls of a hospital and tell every second people that they have an incurable disease! Wow! I’m really loving this idea now!….NOT!
These are adults who have forgotten their mission…they want to be the inspirational speakers who they are NOT. The only way they can get the reaction they’re looking for is by letting people think that their peer/brother/sister/cousin/boyfriend/girlfriend/neighbour/mentor is dead; won’t be comming back. After this experience…I doubt it’s the Drunk Drivers who will lose respect. It’s the educators and service providers these kids should be able to hold their safety in. Not all aspects of life have to be simulated as a reality TV show.
@Pam: By whom?
Most of the people making negative comments about officer Newberry would be the first ones to condemn him if one of their sweet little snowflakes got killed by a drunk driver and he never made them aware of the consequences of what happens while driving under the influnece. Poor little snowflakes, how are they going to handle everyday life after school and the leave the protection of the nest? This program should have been started when the parents were teens. Hummmm, maybe the parents are teens.
you know you are all a bunch of whiners, i for one am glad that they are going to such extremes because for all the “good intentions” that parents have the kids dont get it when they are just told they have to see for themselves how far they can push the envelope and its about f***ing time someone started showing them the cold hard reality as parents today seem so incapable of doing. god forbid we should warp their little personalities by telling them how it is lets just not talk about it and they will just know better… wake up people this world is going to shit on the backs of those same teenagers who are being raised to believe there are no consequences just so you can feel better about not harming their little minds with reality
MADD has pushed puritanical values since their inception. Who else do you think raised the drinking age to 21 with false studies of “safety”?
Honestly, their organization is about as close to radical as peta….and just as logical
aka peta’s “this is bad, but this next to it (same thing) is a-okay”.
They did this at my wife’s school in Texas as well. She had to sit down with her students afterwards and defend the police and the school, which many of the students have “mysteriously” come to distrust or hold in contempt. What’s scary is that there are literally tens of thousands of adults active in this program, many of whom are teachers or police officers, and not a single one of them has the basic common sense necessary to recognize this as a bad idea. Our most trusted public positions are staffed almost entirely by incompetent morons.