This year, at one California High School, the annual Senior Prank was carried out by... the faculty?
This article tells about one tragic Monday morning. Highway patrol officers paid a visit to El Camino High School to relate some horrible news to 20 different classrooms. Several students had been killed in alcohol-related car accidents over the weekend.
Hours after the tears and hysterics from devastated classmates, the faculty let the students in on a secret.
It was all a hoax.
And it gets better. School officials are defending themselves, saying they did the right thing. With graduation (and the parties that go with it) approaching, they wanted a way to shock the students into learning what can happen if you drink and drive.
In November of 2000, school officials came into my high school to tell the student body that Ben Filkil and his father had been killed in an Alpine cable car fire while in Austria, along with 157 other people.
Ben’s death was real, and the reaction our entire school felt was severe. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
While the deaths at El Camino High School were nothing more than a highly orchestrated prank, I imagine the reaction of the students was no less real than what we felt at the news of Ben’s death.
What the officials of El Camino High School did is disgusting. To play with the emotions of 3000 students just to make a point is appalling, and it blows my mind that these "responsible" adults that parents entrust with the well-being of their children are defending their actions.
If a group of educated adults, trained to promote thinking and creativity, cannot come up with anything more creative than using emotional damage to relay a message, perhaps they should rethink their chosen careers.
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Our High school did something similar to this in a more constructive manner. Surprisingly it too is a California school. All the students and parents were in on the 'prank'. It was drunk driving day with a major skit. Twelve popular students some highschool aged siblings were painted up and layed out near a couple of rented smashed up/ totallled vehicles. The principle and some parents spoke, teachers briefed, police explained. Later in an assembly those that 'died' got a chance to say some things about how 'they never got a chance' and 'too bad I am dead so I can't say goodbye' and that sort of thing. Of course the drunk driver got to speak too... many left in tears that day because of the reality... That year there were no alcohol related incidents.
The way that school went about it is terrible. Even the teachers do not think anymore. Geez!
~T
All truths are easy to understand once discovered; The point is to discover them ~Galileo
See, that I think would be ok. It's just a dramatization, not real death, and it worked. But what the faculty at this school did was just plain wrong.
~C
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The high school where I coached track did the same thing every year around prom time. The students who started the day laid out next to the cars then walked around silently all day, dressed in black with pallid makeup on. It had a haunting affect. Also, the percentage of students who dressed up as casualties matched the percentage of teenagers killed in car accidents annually in our area, which gave the students some sense of how common death by auto accident is. They also taught students about the process of being arrested for DUI, and had them wear "drunk glasses" to simulate inebriation. It was a pretty comprehensive program that taught a lesson without toying with their emotions.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Our school has a "drunk driving day" every year. The cops come, administer sobriety tests, have students wear the goggles, show gruesome videos, and talk to the kids. It seems like every few years the message doesn't get across and someone gets killed in drunk driving accident in our town, so the parents of the students who were killed come in and speak to the students. Its very emotional and very heart-wrenching to see a parent who has lost a child.
Our school also sets up a demonstration of a car accident in the parking lot. They start the day with two normal cars and then put them into this sort of machine that pretty much smashes the cars together with the kind of force that would be equivalent to a car crash at 50mph. The gutted cars are then placed by the sign for the school, like some kind of modern art, as a reminder of how damaging a car accident can really be.
"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent." - Victor Hugo
Yup, I'm a music nerd.
My school did something like that too right before Spring Break last year. I can't remember what they called it, but I think it was put on by a group that holds these things across the nation.
Hmmm now that you say that I think I remember something about that. I guess if there is a group that does that then the school is either cheap or twice (maybe triple) as dumb as I thought before.
~T
All truths are easy to understand once discovered; The point is to discover them ~Galileo
Shattered Dreams. Does that ring a bell?
Maybe it does sound familiar, but I graduated tan years ago, I guess I can google it in a little bit.... Its called the 'shattered dreams program' and if you search that term alot of good info comes up.
~T
All truths are easy to understand once discovered; The point is to discover them ~Galileo
I think the way your high school did it was much, much better. It drives in reality in a constructive way.
My old university does something with an idea similar to this every semester, but to make people aware of the reality of hate crimes, not drunk driving accidents. When I went my freshman year, it was incredibly powerful. I don't know if it was kind of "you can only do it once" thing, but when I went the following year, I didn't think it was as good.
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That has got to be the cruelest prank ever. No one should joke around about death. Stupid teachers!
It was incredibly mean and cruel. And irresponsible and offensive and... arrrrrrrg it still makes me furious.
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I see no humor, glamour or point in this. At my high school, we had a sudent die in a fatal car crah. They were driving home and they turned the corner and almost made it home when this car that was racing behind him with this other car to the side of him. The car behind him was going 100mph and he was drunk so he kepton driving and ran into the back of the student's car. When th student's car swereved, it hit the car to the side of him. That car flipped over. The back and side end of th student's car was crushed in , and his car crashed towards a busy road. A 18 wheeler was driving down that busy road and tried to stop, but ran into the students car and the car that hit him on the side. The student was pronounced dead. The car that was on the side of him- that driver dies. They were also a student from our school. The one that hit the student from behind made it out alive but was put in the hospital under critical condition. The guy in the 18 wheeler was ok.
Our school placed the 2 students cars in front of the school on large durable polls, and placed a plaque describing what happened. The cars were placed in the front of our schools to teach us and everyone else that speed racing has it's consequences. So does drinking and driving.It even made the local news.
Our school placed the 2 students cars in front of the school on large durable polls, and placed a plaque describing what happened.
Wow. That is intense. And a really good way of sending a message to people--I mean, that's the last thing people see as they leave school each day. The image has to stay in their minds for a while. I hope it's working in your town to reduce the number of people driving dangerously.
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This is actually the subject of the next ProU poll but shh! Might have to change it now
I have to agree with you. We had a student die in a car accident when I was in high school and it's not something to fake. There are less traumatizing ways to get the point across. It reminds me of the field trip in which kids were all ushered into one or two rooms and told there was a gunman in the building. They were absolutely terrified until they were told it was just a hoax.
Goes to show... being an adult doesn't automatically make one any less ignorant.
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"If I fall asleep with a pen in my hand, don't remove it - I might be writing in my dreams."- Pace
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Guess I should have read this before putting up the poll [-(
~C
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No worries. I linked this blog to the poll so they could see the discussion and story here and thus not cheat her out of points because we raped her topic.
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~Fallon~
"If I fall asleep with a pen in my hand, don't remove it - I might be writing in my dreams."- Pace
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No seriously, if you're easy to (or even sort of difficult to) offend, read no further...
...I warned you...
...
If my topic gets pregnant, can it get an abortion?
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rofl
No! That'd be murder and murder be baaad.
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"If I fall asleep with a pen in my hand, don't remove it - I might be writing in my dreams."- Pace
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more publicity for me!! :-h
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Holy omfg. Like, little kids? or Junior high students? Or what? I think that might be more cruel than the fake death hoax lesson plan... but I can't decide. I do know that's horrible.
Stuff like this is why I sometimes tell people:
Dans un monde idéal, l'humanité n'existe pas (because everything sounds better in French
).
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6h graders. Here's the link.
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~Fallon~
"If I fall asleep with a pen in my hand, don't remove it - I might be writing in my dreams."- Pace
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This went way too far. I agree with one of the first posts. it sounds like alot of people have experienced fake deaths, but in a better way than the teacher did it. This is a very bad prank. You never fake a person's death, I also believe in a sense it is bad luck.
One kid at my school died senior year but not from drunk driving I don't think. It was very sad. He was ejected out the window and his best friend was sitting right next to him. His best friend lived and he died. Many people found this as an "excuse" to drink because of his death..and I found it to be stupid to deal with it in that way.
http://www.progressiveu.org/032913-lupus-uncureable-wait-what
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They did take it too far.
I'm wondering if, maybe, they heard or read about something like the previously mentioned experiences and wanted to imitate it, but just completely went about it the wrong way.
That is horrible about the kid at your school. It is especially horrible that some students took it as an excuse to just start drinking. Grief is a horrible reason to drink and that is not a smart habit to get into, ever, but especially at such a young age.
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When I first heard about this on the news, I too thought "how completely inconsiderate." However, I also then thought "I bet it got the point across though"
I think this school is onto something. A lot of schools already have mock crashes, but the drunk driving death rates are still too high. I'm not suggesting that we all do something as extreme as this school. However, perhaps figure out how this school's mistake could be transformed into a less traumatizing but equally effective method.
I'm still totally irate.
I rant about it to everyone who will still listen. My friends and I are so hurt to hear about this when we know what it's like to be informed of a young friend's death.
People are capable of making their own decisions. Kids today are fully aware of the potential consequences of drinking and driving. This sort of thing is not necessary. Deciding not to drink and drive is an intellectual decision, not an emotional decision. The school officials here are appealing to the wrong part of the brain.
If people learn of all the dangers and still decide to drink and drive, that's their choice. Not saying it's right or wrong to drink and drive, just saying that if you tell someone that smoking can kill you, but they want to start anyway, then obviously whatever benefit they get from smoking is important enough to them that they wish to ignore the potential consequences.
And it's their right to do so.
I doubt any of the teachers responsible for this "prank" got any permission from any of the parents of the children that go to this school. School officials need to realize that they do not own the children that go to their school. School officials are not the parents. The parents are the parents.