Life lessons

Christine Carrillo

A haunting reality crept onto the Costa Mesa High School campus last

week as nearly 1,200 students came face to face with their mortality.

On Wednesday, sirens blared and a 911 call echoed through the

gloomy air. Tombstones adorned the school grounds representing 23

students ripped from their young lives. On Thursday, tears were shed

and stories were told. A hard reality pulled at their hearts.

The two days were part of the city’s second Every 15 Minutes

Program, a two-day simulation designed to personalize the grim

consequences of drinking and driving.

“It’s all a reenactment and we try to make it as real as

possible,” said Costa Mesa Police Officer Brian Wadkins, who

organized the event. “You want to get the emotion and you want to

shock the kids. You want them to learn.”

Surrounding a carefully concocted crash sight just off the campus,

more than a thousand students watched as their peers played pivotal

roles in an event, which showed how partying with a few drinks can

turn into a terrible tragedy.

Costa Mesa Firefighters used the jaws of life, hammers and axes to

pry off the roof of a blue Cadillac sedan that pinned a bloody high

school girl in the passenger seat. She had the misfortune of riding

in the car with a drunk driver.

Public safety personnel worked diligently to save who they could.

They covered one driver with a yellow tarp as he remained sitting in

the driver’s seat behind a windshield cracked and splattered with

blood. He was dead when the first officer arrived. He left in a body

bag. They freed two teenage girls from their cars and sent them to

Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, where one of them was pronounced

dead.

“You realize that we all need to do our part so parents won’t have

to be sitting in the hospital waiting room to hear the doctors tell

them their kid is dead,” said Laura Navarrette, the mother of

17-year-old Lacey Navarrette, who played the student who died at the

hospital. “It was easy [to pretend] because when they tell you that

your child is dead and you see them lying there in the hospital bed

you know that it could happen and it has happened [to other parents].

It’s very powerful.”

A GRIM SCENE

While some students in the audience initially adopted a comedic

response to the mock accident that took place on Arlington Avenue

near Fairview Road, their giggles and apathetic commentary slowly

subsided as the distinctive line between fantasy and reality started

to blur.

“I think everybody gets caught up in the moment ... even I did,”

said 17-year-old Isaac Torres, who played the drunk driver and had to

go through the entire arrest process. “It’s changed me.”

Using a mock accident scene to make the dangers of drunk driving a

reality, students got a simulated sense of what the “Every 15

Minutes” national statistic represents.

Symbolizing how one person either dies or is seriously injured

every 15 minutes in an alcohol-related accident, a 6-foot-6 Grim

Reaper led 19 juniors and seniors to their death. He placed a hand on

their shoulder and escorted them out of class while their obituaries

were read to the classmates they left behind.

“The whole reason we got into this business is to help people and

if we did it half way they would buy it half way, “ said Costa Mesa

Police Officer Jess Gilman, who played the Grim Reaper. “The goal is

to try to touch all the different groups on campus ... they can

relate a little bit more with a cross section of students.”

The program not only tries to reach out to the various cliques

found on a high school campus, it also attempts to address the

popular notion of immortality that many teenagers live by. Relying on

more than just a fatal re-enactment, the program also incorporates

emotional testimony from individuals who’ve experienced the grim

reality of drinking and driving.

A POWERFUL MESSAGE

After touring the mortuary and cemetery at Pacific View Memorial

Park in Corona del Mar, and listening to testimony from police

officers, doctors and other community members who have to face this

reality nearly every day, the juniors and seniors who participated in

the program said they gained an understanding of the full-scope of

consequences that can result when someone makes a choice to drive

drunk.

“This is a very, very powerful message both for students and their

families ... it’s a very worthwhile activity,” said Fred Navarro,

principal at Costa Mesa High. “It’s inspiring to us to have so many

members of the community come and give so much of their time.”

One of those individuals was Jason Barber.

In 1991 Barber went out with some friends, got drunk and decided

to race. He got in fatal car accident that left his younger brother

dead. Barber was convicted of vehicular manslaughter and spent about

four years in prison.

“There is no middle road when it comes to drunk driving,” he said,

as he reached the end of his speech and tried to compose himself. “If

you’re not part of the solution, you’re automatically part of the

problem.”

A HEARTBREAKING REALITY

While Barber shared his emotional story, demanding the audience’s

attention and respect, he wasn’t the only one.

Some of the students and parents, who were asked to write letters

of good-bye to their family and friends, attempted to read them

aloud. Choked up with emotion and clinging to one another, they

shared their anguish over not saying “I love you,” enough or not

being more forgiving. They shared the pain of losing someone they

loved, leaving nearly everyone listening in tears.

“It was heartbreaking ... we cried a lot,” said 18-year-old Keanie

Northrop, a senior who was among the program’s living dead.

Her response was typical of her fellow classmates’.

“I think it really opens your eyes,” Lacey said, as she dabbed her

tearing eyes with a tissue. “It makes you appreciate what you have.”

The goal of the extensive educational program was to give students

an opportunity to see the potential consequences of their actions

and, hopefully, alter them before they become a player in the Every

15 Minutes statistic.

“What a rare opportunity you’ve had,” Barber said to the students,

parents, faculty, administrators and community members that filled

the gym Thursday morning. “You now have to make a choice. I’m going

to ask you today ... that you find the courage to challenge and to

stand up against drunk driving.”

* CHRISTINE CARRILLO covers education and may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at [email protected].