SADD Students Act Out Against Drunk Driving

The last thing students want to see are their classmates and friends involved in a lethal car accident caused by drunk driving. But in a demonstration at Wednesday, April 27, that’s exactly what happened.

"This is to promote awareness to drunk driving because prom is coming up next week," said Students Against Destructive Decisions advisor Michelle Amaral. "Students usually respond well to it."

Teachers Driving Academy, and helped Students Against Destructive Decisions, also known as SADD, perform a mock oui crash. This demonstration is put on every other year for juniors and seniors.

"The police and fire did a great job," Amaral said.

Alexi Idreos, Peter Daniels, Ryan Economou, Ashley Bortolotti, Samantha Gaglio, Hannah Chisholm and Eric Linfield acted out the scene of a car crash after prom. Idreos played the drunk driver who was responsible for the “deaths” of Bortolotti and Chisholm.

Classmates watched as Bortolotti's limp body, which was sprawled out on the ground, was carried away on a stretcher. Chisholm was next, after the roof of the car was sawed off. Wearing intoxication goggles, Idreos attempted to walk a straight line and lift one leg without falling over. Things got more emotional as the crowd saw a distraught parent, played by Kent Taylor, rush over to his daughter's dead body. And finally, the girls' last rights were given as Idreos was handcuffed and driven away by police.

“So far, Norton has been lucky that the only drinking and driving fatalities have been the staged ones at our mock crashes,” Norton High principal Raymond Dewar said.

Cory Scanlon, 28, wasn’t so lucky, however. Though he is alive to tell the tale, Scanlon was responsible for the deaths of his two best friends, PJ and Mike, when he was 19. It was PJ’s birthday, and to celebrate, they all went to a bar. When it was time to leave, Scanlon was intoxicated but drove anyway. He lost control of his vehicle, and it flipped over three times.

“I’m begging you to stop and take that second if you are in that situation,” Scanlon said. “I don’t care if you remember me after I shut off this microphone. But remember Mike and PJ.

“You have the world in the palm of your hand, and the only person who can take that away is yourself,” Scanlon said.

Dewar said that with prom coming up Saturday and graduation June 3, he understands that some students will want to party. Though he wishes students wouldn’t consume alcohol at all, he hopes that if they do, they will make smart decisions regarding drinking, drugs and driving.

“You don’t want to be here making the same speech Cory gave today,” Dewar said. “And we want everyone who is a senior to walk across the stage June 3.”