May 3, 2008

Southern Wells students learn the dangers of drunk driving at Operation Prom/Graduation

By NATHAN MARCHAND

The students at Southern Wells High School witnessed a mock accident on Friday morning in the school’s parking lot. It was part of Operation Prom, a program put on by several local safety organizations, including the Liberty Center Fire Department, Chester Fire Department, Wells County EMS and Wells County Sheriff’s Department.

Jeremy Daugherty, chief of the Liberty Center Fire Department, “hosted” the program. Behind him was a wrecked car with four Southern Wells students covered in fake blood playing the parts of four friends on prom night. The four were junior Tia Henderson, who played a corpse; senior Jeffrey Love, who was the driver; junior Clayton Sessions, the driver’s friend; and senior Natalie Lewellen, who played a wounded passenger in critical condition.

Daugherty set the stage by reading a story about four students on prom night. The boys picked up their dates, the four of them had a great time at prom, and then they went to an after-prom party, where the boys had too much to drink. They then crashed into a telephone pole while driving the girls back home.

With the introduction finished, the boys crawled out of the car, crushed beer cans falling out of the car and rattling against the ground. One girl lay on the hood of the car, dead, having been thrown through the windshield. The other girl lay unconscious in the back seat, covering in blood.

“You happy now?” the driver’s friend said, shoving him.

The two paced around the vehicle until Wells County EMS arrived. Soon the fire department and a sheriff’s deputy arrived, too. EMS examined the girls while the sheriff questioned the driver, handcuffing him. The fire department pried the door off the car and carefully loaded the wounded girl onto a stretcher and into an ambulance. (Lutheran Air was supposed to fly a helicopter in for the demonstration, but could not because of malfunctions).

Firefighters covered the body on the hood with a cloth. (The Wells County coroner was also supposed to show up as part of the demonstration, but was unable to).

The boys were also examined by EMS, loaded onto stretchers, and taken to the hospital.

Once the demonstration was over, the four students returned, still wearing their gory makeup, to the applause of their classmates.

Principal Chad Yencer then took the microphone and reminded students that while it may have been funny to see their friends covered with makeup while giving the demonstration, it was important to remember the point of it all: “Drinking and prom night don’t mix.”

After the program ended, Daugherty told this reporter he has never had to respond to a prom night emergency in his eight years with the Liberty Center Fire Department.

He also said the car used in the demonstration was donated by BNK Auto Salvage of Warren.

Operation Prom is an event that been put on at Southern Wells High School every other year since 1992 as a way of showing the dire consequences of drinking and driving on prom night.

nathan@news-banner.com

Talk about this story in our forums!