Newsreleases

Santa Clara Police and Santa Clara Unified School District Join Forces to Combat Drunk Driving
Two-Day Program Gives Students First-Hand Look at the Consequences of Drinking and Driving

Dates and Times: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 10:45 AM and Thursday, May 15, 2008 at 12:30 PM

Details: The Santa Clara Police Department, in partnership with the Santa Clara Unified School District, will be holding a two-day drunk driving prevention program at Santa Clara High School on May 14 and 15th.  The highly-acclaimed program known as Every 15 Minutes is designed to create a realistic understanding of the impact on people involved in alcohol-related fatal collisions.  The Every 15 Minutes program will involve 25 Santa Clara High School students, 50 parents, and teachers, the Police Department, Fire Department, American Medical Response, Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara, and The Lima Family Mortuary.  Additionally, Santa Clara merchants and fraternal organizations are also supporting the program by donating personnel, facilities and supplies.

According to Santa Clara Police Chief Steve Lodge…
"This program provides a realistic look at the serious consequences of drinking and driving.  The simulation of these tragedies helps the students to make the decision in advance not to drink and drive or to ride with someone who has been drinking.  With this program the Santa Clara Police Department and the Santa Clara Unified School District are hoping to avert the serious injury or death of one of our students."

Activities:
Day One: A staged fatal car collision, involving five students, will take place at the football stadium at Santa Clara High School located at 3000 Benton Street in Santa Clara. Response by emergency personnel and treatment of the injured will be as realistic as possible. Students will witness first-hand what actually occurs in alcohol-related collisions. "Injured" students will be transported to Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara where some will be "treated" and others will "succumb" to their injuries. One student will be arrested for DUI and experience the criminal justice system first-hand. Parents will be notified that their children have been "injured" or "killed" as a result of the collision.

During the remainder of the school day, one-by-one, 20 pre-selected students will be announced as having been "killed by a drunk driver." An obituary will be read to their classmates and a rose placed on the deceased student’s desk. A grave headstone with their name will then be placed in a symbolic graveyard in the school’s quad. The 20 students will then become part of the "living dead," symbolizing that a person dies every 15 to 30 minutes in the United States as a result of a drunk driver.

All 25 students will be sequestered from parents and friends until day two. During that time, they will listen to speakers who have experienced the tragedy of losing a loved one to a drunk driver, learn about anti-drunk driving organizations, and write a paper about their experiences during the day and what they would like to have done with their lives if it had not been cut short by a drunk driver.

Day Two: Santa Clara High School will host a mock funeral for the students who died. Guest speakers, including students and parents, will talk about how their lives were impacted by drunk drivers and how they would feel if their child had really been killed or maimed in a DUI collision. A video created by the City of Santa Clara MCTV video team capturing the events of "Day One" will be shown to all the students prior to the conclusion of the event. A highlight video will be aired later for residents of the City on cable channel 15.

The Santa Clara Police Department and Santa Clara Unified School District’s purpose for presenting The Every 15 Minutes program is to educate our high school age youth at a critical point in their lives. The program provides students powerful insight, through realistic dramatization, into the ramifications of drinking and driving.

Santa Clara Unified School District
Serving approximately 14,000 K-12 students and 18,000 adult learners in the City of Santa Clara, the eastern part of Sunnyvale, the northern part of Cupertino and the Alviso area of San Jose, Santa Clara Unified School District is committed to providing students with the academic preparation and lifelong learning skills to be effective communicators, informed-productive thinkers, self directed learners, collaborative workers, and contributing citizens of the community.
www.scusd.net

Santa Clara Police Department
The Santa Clara Police Department serves a community of 114,238 living in an area of just over 19 square miles. In 2007, our police officers and community service officers self-initiated over 23,850 events, responded to over 57,340 calls for service and handled over 1,600 traffic accidents. Additionally, they resolved hundreds of "quality of life issues" in our neighborhoods. Several years ago, the police department adopted the Community Oriented Policing philosophy. This has helped us to not only expand and strengthen long-term community outreach programs such as PAL and Neighborhood Watch, it has also helped us to implement a number of new programs such as the Citizen’s Police Academy, Business Watch, and the Every 15 Minutes Program. Programs like these serve to strengthen the bond between the police department and the community we serve. www.scpd.org

Contact:
Lieutenant Michael Sellers
Administrative Services Division
408-615-4865

Contact Person for SCUSD:
Tabitha Kappeler-Hurley
Media Relations
408-423-2109