The assembly came nine days before the school’s prom.
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“It’s a great opportunity to talk to our kids about making good decisions, being around positive people and avoiding drugs and alcohol,” Principal John Carroll said.
The event was shown in front of the entire student body and featured the story of a fatal two-vehicle accident where one of the teen drivers had been intoxicated.
As the story is told, one car featuring upperclassmen and the other a group of underclassmen are heading to two different places when the two cars collide, killing one of the passengers but not the intoxicated driver.
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Students, teachers and administrators—some with tears in their eyes—looked on as Washington Twp. firefighters and EMTs, Centerville Police officers and Montgomery County Coroner’s Office staff showed the possible outcomes of what could happen at a scene like the one before them.
“The message consistently is: Don’t ever drink and drive, don’t ever take drugs and drive and, in a related sense, don’t drive distracted,” Carroll said.
The event was hosted and performed by student members of SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), providing a “dramatic reproduction of a 911 incident,” according to a letter sent out to Centerville High School parents.
Leslie Reinhart, a teacher at Centerville and SADD Club adviser, said student involvement in the assembly is important in helping other students buy into the message of doing the right thing.
“Peer pressure can be a good thing if it’s done in the right way,” she said.
According to the Ohio Department of Public Safety, since 2012, there have been 5,797 car crashes involving teen drivers between the ages of 15 and 18 in Montgomery County. Of those crashes, 11 resulted in a fatality, 41 of the drivers were under the influence of alcohol and three of the alcohol related accidents were fatal.
While Centerville hasn’t had any recent tragedies involving students in an alcohol- or drug-related accident, there have been recent graduates who have died under similar circumstances, Carroll said.
“I don’t think you need a bunch of statistics showing you there’s been a bunch of tragedies nearby to have that message. That message prevents those statistics,” he said.
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Centerville Police public information officer John Davis said the department has a “zero-tolerance” policy against under-aged drinking, and anyone found doing so would be charged appropriately.
“That’s not just prom season, that’s anytime,” Davis said.
Davis said Centerville officers will continue to monitor underage drinking behaviors as they’ve been, but that the urgency of their message has “increased” around prom season.
Davis said he couldn’t say if any sobriety checkpoints will be used, but said, “We do have some things in the works.”
By the numbers
Alcohol-related crashes for drivers ages 15-18 since 2012 in Montgomery County
Drivers in fatal crashes: 11
Drivers in crashes: 5,797
Alcohol-impaired drivers in crashes: 41
Alcohol impaired drivers in fatal crashes: 3
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