Kyle Alvarez was reading his own obituary in front of a full auditorium when he broke down in tears.
Asked
to speak as if he had lost his own life in a drunk-driving crash, the
18-year-old thanked his parents for their love and support.
The
exercise was part of the two-day “Every 15 Minutes” program held at
Burbank High School last week, which included a live simulation of an
emergency response to a drunk-driving collision, a memorial for those
who were simulated to have lost their lives and presentations by parents
who have lost their children in real car crashes.
PHOTOS: Burbank students receive a dramatic lesson on dangers of drunk driving
Designed to educate youth about the dangers of impaired driving, the
exercise, which cost more than $20,000, was funded by donations from the
Burbank Police Foundation, as well as by a state Office of Traffic
Safety grant.
The program began on Wednesday morning, when every
15 minutes on the dot, Principal Michael Bertram announced over the PA
system — which reaches the school’s roughly 2,600 students — that a
student had died in a drunk-driving crash.
After the
announcement, someone dressed as the Grim Reaper would visit the
“deceased” student’s classroom and pull them out of class. Later that
morning, the students watched police and fire officials respond to the
simulated drunk-driving crash.
The next day, a video showed what
led up to the staged crash. In the video, several students — including
Alvarez, who played the drunk driver in the video — were passing around
and swigging from a large bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey in the boys’
locker room. Shortly after, Alvarez and his friends got into a car and
drove away, eventually crashing into a bicyclist and another car.
In
the video, Burbank police and fire officials responded to the scene and
arrested Alvarez while taking the victims away on gurneys. Later, the
video shows him being sentenced to 25 years in prison.
While the
crash and deaths were staged, the exercise felt all too real for
several Burbank teens, who in the last two years lost eight classmates
in two separate collisions in which alcohol or drugs were a factor.
“It’s
not a joke. It’s reality,” Alvarez said. The night of the 2013 crash
that claimed the lives of five young people — one of whom was a friend —
Alvarez had gone out and traveled down the same road to get home as
those who perished.
When Alvarez was first approached about
playing the drunk driver, he hesitated. But he agreed to play the part
after realizing that he had the opportunity to make a lasting impact on
his fellow classmates. That turned out to be true, if for no one more
than himself.
“It has changed my life,” he said, vowing never to get in the car with a driver who’s been drinking.
The message came just a few days before the school’s prom, which was no coincidence.
“In
recent years, we’ve all been hit hard by this epidemic,” Bertram told
his students. “I want to see each and every one of you on Monday.”
A mother who lost her two sons in a reckless driving accident also shared her story, leaving many in the auditorium in tears.
“Imagine
spending $20,000 on funeral expenses instead of college,” said Alice
Renolds, who lost her teenage sons in a crash 15 years ago. “The pain
never goes away.”