Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Pre-Prom Death Prevention

I did my last pre-prom presentation for this season today (a school not even in my county). I never really know if I have said something that will make a difference or not. There are blank stares, groups of teens talking amongst themselves, texting, etc. There are also attentive looks, laughs at the right times in my presentation, times of hushed silence, etc.

I talked about driving drunk or on drugs, driving distracted, the possibility that they could die or hurt or kill someone else. I spoke of many things.

As I was leaving the school one of the school security people stopped me and told me she had listened to parts of my talk, she was too busy to stay the whole hour. She told me it was good and that she hoped that it had sunk in to at least some of the students. I do too.

I told the students to remember just 5 things. That the rest of the talk was just dressing for those things, stuff so that the important points might be remembered:

Think
Don’t take chances
Make good choices
I don’t want to tell their parents that they are dead
Stay out of my office (until you are very old)


Those are my points and I will take every opportunity to communicate them to teens and kids and adults. I will always hope that they sink in and make a difference.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just found your blog and i have to say, when i was in HS, we had the coroner come out and talk to us about drinking and driving(drugs weren't as big). I will never forget the picture of the boy who had a chunk of his shoulder missing after he ran his car into a tree after a night of drinking. You def. have 'gotten' to some kids....someone heard you and all it takes is that one kid to voice what you've said and continue to make sure they don't become another satistic.