MADD goes MAD
May 31st, 2008 by COD
One definition of terrorism involves using fear and intimidation to scare innocent people, which is exactly what MADD and the police department did in El Camino, CA.
Many juniors and seniors were driven to tears – a few to near hysterics – May 26 when a uniformed police officer arrived in several classrooms to notify them that a fellow student had been killed in a drunken-driving accident.
The officer read a brief eulogy, placed a rose on the deceased student’s seat, then left the class members to process their thoughts and emotions for the next hour.
The program, titled “Every 15 Minutes,” was designed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Its title refers to the frequency in which a person somewhere in the country dies in an alcohol-related traffic accident.
How the hell is this allowed to happen in schools? Teachers can’t look cross eyed at a student without losing their job, but MADD and the cops can mentally torture them for a day because they claim it’s in their best interests?
Though the deception left some teens temporarily confused and angry, if it makes even one student think twice before getting behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated, it is worth the price, said California Highway Patrol Officer Eric Newbury, who orchestrates the program at local high schools.
“When someone says to me, ‘Oh, my God, you’re traumatizing my children,’ I’m telling them, ‘No, what I’m doing is waking them up,’ ” said Newbury, whose father was killed by a drunken driver.
“If you don’t do your job as a parent … the only thing I can do is either arrest them and take them to jail or scrape them off the ground and tell you, ‘I’m so sorry.’ ”
Hat tip: The Agitator, and also Skip Olivia, as I lifted the terrorism analogy from his comment.
Tags: schools
| 7 Comments7 Responses to “MADD goes MAD”
“…if it makes even one student think twice before getting behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated, it is worth the price.”
He’s tossing off that comment without even giving “the price” proper thought. The price may be that more than one kid is going to think MADD and the police are simply into manipulative mind games.
Since I study antitrust, I half-jokingly wonder if MADD’s little stunt didn’t violate the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits “misleading and deceptive” acts affecting commerce. If a business used such a hoax to promote its product, the FTC’s Bureau of Competition would be all over it.
Then again, the FTC actually runs anti-”teen” drinking propaganda (I use quotes because of course the law actually prohibits adults aged 18-21 from drinking), so maybe they’d be cool with this sort of deception.
And of the kids who were maybe traumatized because they already *had* a family member killed by drunk driving? Is that worth the price?
Coincidentally, a friend’s daughter just went through this program, and my brother in law – a firefighter – helped organize another. I find the program fascinating after hearing about it from two different sources. I have to wonder if 1) the reporter got it wrong or 2) this school took it a step further than it should have. My understanding is that the kids *know* that the incident is a mock one, know it’s coming, but not when. Want me to double check?? If I’m mistaken, I absolutely agree that it’s too cruel for words.
My dad has helped organize and film a few of these every 15 minutes programs for a small school in a very small town. The entire town knows about it ahead of time and are involved. The resulting movie is used in other schools. I watched the second one my dad put together and I cried my eyes out.
This is infuriating. I actually remembering being horrified at some fancy multimedia presentation to the juniors and seniors on drunk driving right before prom. I did not need to see tiny bodies of preschoolers dead on the highway to convince me drunk driving is bad. If I had been a tiny bit braver I would have walked out in the middle of the thing. I’m getting angry just thinking about it. This is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Something to keep in mind here sportfans: MADD is not saying, “That’s not what really happened” or “Everybody knew in advance”. MADD is saying “We had nothing to do with this”
The Neo-Prohibitionist fanatics from MADD are nothing more than home grown TERRORISTS.To MADD,our Constitution is no different than a roll of Charmin toilet paper. They lie to all of us constantly. Execute one of these lying scumbags on national TV and watch how fast their inflated claims/numbers of “DUI crash fatalities” drop. You can learn the truth at http://www.RIDL.us
Better wake up America, before its too late!!!