High school leaders hope mock drunk driving exercise delivered sobering message to students, families
CARIBOU, Maine — Hundreds of onlookers gathered in the high school parking lot as students and the police, fire, and ambulance departments recently staged a drunk driving accident.
Covered in fake blood, student participants sat lifeless in two wrecked cars as the sirens of emergency vehicles could be heard screeching through Sweden Street and onto the school parking lot.
Chatter from onlookers abruptly ended as students were removed from the vehicles, and the “deceased” body of Ethan Plourde was identified by his parents Stephanie and Doug.
Following the June 3 accident, the drunk driver, portrayed by CHS student Justin Ouellette, was sentenced for his crimes in a mock trial held in the Caribou Performing Arts Center.
CHS Principal Travis Barnes said that, while he has wanted to host the “Every 15 Minutes” program for a while, the event itself took over two months to come to fruition.
“I’ve always wanted to do this because I think the message for our kids is huge,” said Barnes. “When I undertook this project, I didn’t realize the actual moving parts behind it.
Barnes added that Caribou Police Officer Daniel Ballanger and Fire Chief Scott Susi were “instrumental” in planning in the event.
Along with the Police and Fire Department, several community organizations helped orchestrate the exercise. Mark’s Towing offered two wrecked cars and Mockler Funeral Home provided a hearse for the “deceased” student. For the subsequent mock trial, the school received help from Assistant District Attorney John Pluto and Judge E. Allen Hunter, whose officer of the court and clerk were present.
“I think the biggest message here is that the community was so supportive because they knew what this means for the kids,” Barnes added.
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Aroostook Republican photo/Christopher Bouchard Maine EMS and Caribou Fire and Ambulance members carry the body of CHS student Ethan Plourde as part of a mock drunk driving accident held in the CHS parking lot on June 3. |
Student actors were initially apprehensive about their performances, but quickly adapted to their roles once police and ambulance showed up and onlookers became quiet.
“Once things got started it felt real,” said Ouellette, “Seeing Ethan on the dash and everyone’s faces when everything was happening really helped out. At first, I didn’t think I’d be able to act that part.”
“It was pretty quiet for me and it was pretty cold outside,” said Plourde. “In terms of emotion, when I got out of the car and everyone in the crowd got quiet, it started to seem real. It definitely felt real when the sirens started going off.”
“My son warned me not to be too emotional,” said Plourde’s mother Stephanie. “The most emotional part for me was actually waiting for our time to go on the scene, listening to sirens and watching the fire trucks. That’s when the emotions really hit. I felt a knot in my stomach, and tears were starting to come. I thought ‘this feels real,’ but I was able to get it out of my system once I was on the scene. I was able to think it through and act it in an appropriate way, but I know I would’ve acted differently if it were really happening.”
“You never want to get there as a parent,” added Barnes, “and it’s hard to fake that, so they did a great job.”
“I had people come up to my husband and I afterwards and say that it didn’t get ‘real’ until we showed up and that that was when it started to hit home,” Stephanie said.
Student participants Plourde and Ouellette say the reaction from their peers has mostly been in the form of jokes.
“People have come up to me saying they’re surprised I’m alive,” said Ethan, “and of course they’re being sarcastic. One thing they asked is if I got wet from the fire hose, which I definitely did. The second thing they mentioned was that my mom did an excellent job setting the mood.”
“I got a lot of jokes too,” said Ouellette. “We’re doing marching practice right now, so whenever someone asks where Ethan is, people look at me. People also come up and say things like ‘How could you?’”
“There wasn’t a whole lot of talk about how people learned from the experience,” said Ethan, “and I wish I could get more feedback from that. Some students felt that, since it wasn’t real, they shouldn’t worry about it, but a couple girls who are known to be partiers went up to Officer St. Peter and said that, after seeing that whole scenario play out, they would never do it again, so at least we got to some people.”
“I’m just hoping that, in the end, if students didn’t get it that day, that when they’re faced with the decision in the moment, it will replay in their mind and they will make the right choice,” said Stephanie.
“I think every school should have something like this,” Ethan added. “Everyone should be able to experience what this is like.”
“Around the planning table, we said many times that if this gets to just one kid then we’ve done our job,” said Principal Barnes.
