Here’s a program that I wish more teenagers took seriously:
An injured student actor is tended to by fire department personnel during the Every 15 Minutes Program at Crescenta Valley High School in La Crescenta on Thursday, February 9, 2012. The program is a dramatic lesson for students about the dangers of drinking and drug use and driving. (Raul Roa/Staff Photographer)
The twisted wreckage and injured bodies strewn across Ramsdell Avenue in La Crescenta Thursday was a nightmare realized for any community. And as hundreds of Crescenta Valley High School students gathered to take in the staged traffic accident, the graphic lesson about the dangers of driving under the influence seemed to be hitting its mark.
“I think it is an important message to send,” said Kaja Sondergaard, 16, who played an accident victim. “I know some people don’t take it seriously, but I think this is a good program to really shock people into realizing that what they are doing can affect people’s lives.”
The scene kicked off “Every 15 Minutes,” an elaborate, two-day program designed to educate teenagers across the country about the dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. In recent years, it has been expanded to also address texting while behind the wheel.
Los Angeles County sheriff and California Highway Patrol officials have collaborated to put on the program at Crescenta Valley High School every other year for the last eight years, CHP Officer Ming Hsu said.
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