So, I think most have heard about the "Every 15 Minutes" program. If you haven't, it's every 15 minutes in America, somebody dies because of drunk driving (now, it's every 32 minutes).
Well, my school did something to honor "Every 15 minutes", that they've been doing for a while now. What my school does is kids are allowed to sign up to help with the program. The people who sign up, and who are chosen are 'killed' every 15 minutes. The local police come with a stretcher, and one of the cops dresses up as the Grim Reaper. They go to the classes of a certain student, every 15 minutes, and they load the person on to the stretcher, and read off an obituary for the person being 'killed'. The person is then dressed up in black cloaks and has their face painted to look like a skeleton. They return to class, dressed up like that, and they can't talk with anybody, nor can they return home that night. The local police deliver a message to the parent of the student who was killed later that night, and tell them that they were killed by a drunk driver (of course they know about the program). They also bring "Sammy's Car", a car of a local girl who died because of a drunk driver 2 years ago, to show how bad the crash was.
Today, we had an assembly, and I have never cried so hard in my life. There was not a dry eye in the room. It was exclusively for seniors. All the people who 'died' the day before are there, and some of their parents. The kids have to prepare speeches to tell their parents about what they would have liked to tell them before they died, and the parents had to present a eulogy to talk about their kids. I broke down when the people began presenting, and as they began to cry. It was so sad.
Then Sammy's mom had a presentation about her daughter and how much she misses her, and what was so great about her. I bawled even more, along with everybody else. Then the kids who 'died' finally took off their cloaks, and stood in front of everybody to show how their life could have easily been snatched from them. They were all crying, even the football player guy who would never cry. That made me cry more. I have never been more moved in my life.
It was weird how much it effected me. I mean, seeing the kid's being hauled away on a stretcher and their obituaries read in front of our class. You never know how much those people effect you. I had two people die in my classes yesterday. Then to see them at the assembly talking about their deaths and what they would have liked to say to their families before they died.
Here's the sight for those who would like to see it.
http://www.every15minutes.com/enter.html
It was so emotional.
But, I just though maybe we could get a discussion going.
Does your school do anything like this?
How do you think you'd react if you went through this?
