April 27th, 2017

Stacking the cups up for prom

Looking back on an important lesson as prom approaches

Bryce Kollar
Assistant Entertainment Editor

John Smith and Bryce Kollar at Prom 2016. Photo: Nicole Kollar

  As May approaches and the year is coming to an end, prom is knocking at our back doors. With women in beautiful dresses, men in tuxedos, and a dazzling new venue to kick off Freedom’s fiftieth anniversary, alcohol consumption is unfortunately going to be present in with the festivities of the night.
  According to Huffingtonpost.com, an estimated eighty-eight thousand people who die from alcohol consumption each year.
  With the consumption of alcohol also comes drunk driving. Just last year, Freedom High school's seniors and juniors took part in the Every Fifteen Minutes program.
Some individuals throughout the senior and junior class were picked specifically to play the role as being “dead”.   The students would go to school like any other school day and every fifteen minutes, a man dressed up as the Grim Reaper showed up at a classroom and took away one of the students in the program.
The student would then reappear, with their face painted white like a ghost.
  The student was then not allow to talk to anybody, answer any questions, or use any electronics for communication.
During the afternoon, the seniors and juniors at Freedom were taken to the back of the building where they witnessed a fake accident scene with firefighters, police, and even student actors.
  The students acted out the crash and the police arrested the student who was assumed to be the drunk driver who caused the accident.
The program is to teach the kids involved and outside of the fake accident what happens when you drink and drive.
The student who was arrested was taken away and sentenced to years in prison for the deaths of the people in the accident. There then was a emotional assembly set up as a fake funeral and the seniors and juniors attended.
  “We wrote letters to our parents and they wrote letters to us like we were gone, really gone. It was an emotional night, everybody was crying,” said Jonathan Smith.
  Jonathan Smith took part in the program and learned a lot from his experience.
   For those who were not in the program it was part of an outreach toward those individuals who believe drinking and driving is okay and to show them it is one hundred percent not okay at all.
  On Huffingtonpost.com, it is estimated that 30 people die in the United States from motor related crashes from alcohol consumption. With the beautiful weather of spring hopefully to come, it causes a lot more underage drinkers to take risk.
April is Alcohol Awareness Month, which means it is a month that is focused on understanding alcoholism.
  Students who begin drinking at young ages do not realize that they can place themselves into addiction or even serious health issues. As prom is quickly approaching, be cautious of the actions you take and know how valuable your life is.

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