Learning the impact of bad choices
Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter
Holy Cross Collegiate Grade 10 students came back to school on Nov. 4 with a new awareness to the dangers of drinking, drug use and driving.
On Nov. 3 the students went to the Foothills Hospital in Calgary to take part in the Preventing Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth (PARTY) program.
The students were taught the dangers of what impairing the body can do, and how control is lost when deciding to drink and/or do drugs and where it can lead to in life. The students also learned how a single decision can make a life-altering impact.
The students had a chance to see a trauma victim and a number of them admitted that it made them cry. Five of the students spoke about how participating in the program has impacted them.
“There was overwhelming emotional response,” said Logan Weir.
“I think they said that impaired driving in teenagers is one of the leading causes of death,” said William Francis.
“In ages 14 to 16 I think it is, and that is our age range so they thought it was the best idea to bring us in now, (rather) than when it’s already happened,” said Melissa Miller.
“When I’m in a car now I’m really aware of everything. I’ll look at the cars around me and be like, they‘re not supposed to be texting,” said Cassidy Nelson-Halverson.
The students also had a chance to go to the Intensive Care Unit to watch a presentation on what happens when someone goes to emergency when intoxicated.
“They have to cut off your clothes, and you have like four people around you at once and you can’t move,” said Miller.
“You get strapped down and none of the people around you are people that you know, you can’t even pee by yourself,” said Kirstyn Johnson.
The students were told if someone comes in heavily intoxicated, they are often strapped down and forced to wear a diaper while staff deal with the emergency trauma cases coming in.
“I guess now if any of us really do get drunk we’ll make sure, or at least plan before to not drink and drive, or to go with anybody who has been drinking,” said Miller.
Johnson said she is also now more aware of wearing her seatbelt, saying that before she would often forget if it was a short car ride, but is now paranoid about remembering to buckle up.
Weir said they were shown how much of a difference going even just a few kilometres over the speed limit can make if involved in a collision.
“Just watching the videos of the people who have gone through that, you can just tell they don’t really want to be in that position, nobody does, but you just see how bad it is,” said Nelson-Halverson.
“It’s just how one decision can change your life, even if you’re life was good before,” Johnson
“It’s not like your life is the only one affected either, it’s all the other ones…all the people you were with before and all the people that you hurt after, what will happen if you’re gone, and all the people that are affected by that too.”
“The most disturbing video was probably the one lady, she had a few drinks and then she went on the road and killed some man who was a father of a couple children. Then she was just talking about it, she sounded pretty bitter,” Logan
The message to not drink and drive has been around for years, but every year there are people killed by drunk drivers. One tragic drinking and driving death in a family can impact generations to come.
The PARTY program isn’t just about teaching the affects of drinking and driving, but is about teaching about choices that can be made and the consequences and risks that can come with them.