Somerset County Students Create 30-Day Challenge To Combat Distracted Driving

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — Somerset County residents are being challenged to put down their electronic devices in an effort to combat distracted driving.

The "30-Day Challenge" was created by students and staff at the Somerset County Educational Services Commission (S.C.E.S.C.) School in Bridgewater.

Brett Stibitz, a teacher at the school for the last 23 years, shared a letter explaining the challenge.

Dear New Jersey,

I am writing to let you know that the students and staff at the Somerset County Educational Services Commission (S.C.E.S.C.) School in Bridgewater, New Jersey are very concerned about the dangers of texting and driving and we desperately want to make a difference in helping to alleviate this serious problem. For the second straight year, our staff, students, and parents are participating in the “U Got Brains Champion School Program” presented by the Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey (BIANJ) and the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety.

This great program, which is sponsored by NJ Manufacturers Insurance Company and the Allstate Foundation, inspires people all across New Jersey to put their cell phones down and keep our roads and our children safe from the dangers of distracted driving. The goal is to get as many people as possible to pledge to keep their devices away while driving for 30 days. People can go to http://sctddd.org to make their pledges.

Our school (S.C.E.S.C.) is a public school that services mostly special education students across multiple counties in Central New Jersey. Many of our students have very challenging home lives that most people could hardly even imagine. Some have been in and out of foster homes, shelters, and other extremely uncomfortable living environments. All of our students have traveled a very difficult path in their schooling, and many of them feel that they are not good enough to succeed in life because of what they have gone through. Some of them have even been told over and over again that they don’t have what it takes to be successful.

Despite what they have been told, our students have formed a project team that is seriously dedicated to the goal of helping to save lives on the road. Our team is constantly looking for recruits to take the challenge to focus on safe driving instead of on their electronic devices. Each day that someone keeps their devices away while driving, he or she will keep track of their safe practices online. We have gone paperless since last year so drivers can keep track of their days of safe driving and easily make their pledges. In addition to the tallying and paperwork we did last year, we also went door-to-door and handed out 1,143 individual pamphlets. We got 832 back from 8 of our 16 county schools. Although not everyone participated, I am very happy that we created a great amount of awareness to this serious and often deadly issue.

The Somerset Academy 30 Day Challenge Team of 2014-2015 was also honored to receive the first ever “Best Implementation of a Program” award. We were also the first and only special education school to participate in the program, the first and only school to incorporate other school districts in their project, and the first and only school to work with a county prosecutor to successfully implement their program.

Everyone in our school is pitching in and doing their part: the graphic designs department is making flyers, the English department is helping to communicate with the public about our project, and almost one hundred percent of the staff is taking the 30 Day Challenge. I am very proud of our project team for not only taking up our school-wide fight against distracted driving, but for choosing to compete against much larger district schools in the 30 Day Challenge. Although we have a lot of heart, it’s very difficult to compete against schools to find pledges that have ten times the student population and more. This is why we desperately need some outside help.

As a gym teacher at Somerset Academy for the last 23 years, I have developed a soft spot in my heart for our students and I strongly believe in their abilities. I feel that these students need to be seen, heard, and recognized for their brilliant ideas and for their desire to help see this project through. Many of our students don’t have much to call their own, so their unselfish dedication to this project and for this cause is very inspiring. They think that the “30 Day Challenge” can be the next “Ice Bucket Challenge,” and I tell them to dream big!

We here at Somerset Academy challenge you, New Jersey, to take the challenge: can you go 30 days without using an electronic device while driving?

I sincerely appreciate your time in reading this letter. My students are really looking forward to hearing back from you with a response to see if you are willing to participate in the 30 Day Challenge (or maybe help us get some pledges and keep our roads safe). They aren’t expecting to hear back (maybe it’s because they have been let down so often in the past), but I told them that you never know until you try.

Thanks again for your time and please enjoy our YouTube video we made.

Mr. Brett Stibitz