(Update)
Mr. Leonard and ASB directors Maddy Jasso (12), Fernanda Perez (12), and Athena Donahue’s (12) Every 15 Minutes was a success. The two day demonstration was held on February 29th and March 1st and gave awareness to juniors and seniors at the high school to make good decisions to not drink and drive.
Every 15 Minutes had a very realistic demonstration with a two car collision where there were students in both vehicles, with one car having a drunk driver and one other passenger. The drunk driver was EJ Rose (12) and the injured passenger was Joseph Townsend (12). The other vehicle had four students with one being fully deceased on the hood, and passengers were America Ordunez (12), Katie Vu (12), Isabella Faria (12), and deceased Jacob Sandoval (12).
The demonstration happened on S 11th Street during 3rd and 4th periods. The spectators were in awe when they saw their fellow classmates in such a real situation. When viewer Evan Robosa (12) was questioned on how he felt seeing his peers in such a crazy situation like that he said, “It’s really a surreal moment. Once they removed the tarp from the scene, me and many others were not ready for it to look so real.”
With the crash not even being the main part of the demonstration, students quickly saw LBPD and CHP show up, after a 911 call was announced by Athena Donahue. A lot was taken in by students with the EMT’s quickly coming in with the fire department assessing the scene and helping the injured students. The students got to also take in on what really happens at a scene like this where special tools are being used and all the precaution and action the medics use to safely move people out of the vehicle into the ambulance.
While students were distracted with the constructed chaos going on, sounds of a helicopter could be heard from a distance and students were in shock to see it flying closer. Once it showed up on the scene, students of course saw the word “Ambulance” and came to find out it was part of the demonstration. When another student Jasmin Nieves (12) was questioned about all the personnel and vehicles used she said,
“It’s amazing how much attention to detail was really used in the demonstration. Shows how much our school really cares about these types of things and want to show students what really happens.”
The helicopter quickly landed and was set for America Ordunez to be flown to our local hospital. Lastly the demonstration for February 29 ended with EJ Rose being put to a test for DUI where he later failed and was sent off to the Los Banos Police station.
The next day on March 1st, students were released from their 3rd period once again to attend a funeral. It all started when the two caskets were brought in to show two students died from the crash, one being Joseph Townsend and Jacob Sandoval. To gain all the students’ attention they played the final video where they demonstrated the before and aftermath of the crash. They put a lot of detail in showing the hospital side of things and putting everything on the students. What really got the students invested and kind of choked up was their parents seeing their kids in a situation like that. When student Venizea Morales (12) was questioned on how she felt on the final parts of the video she said, “It honestly made me sad; it’s scary seeing the people I see every day and witnessing their parents grieve for their children makes me think if I was in their shoes. I never want to put my mom or dad in that situation.”
The whole demonstration ended with a speech from Deanna Handcock whose son was sadly a victim of being killed in a car crash caused by someone else’s poor decisions. It was sad to many students in the stands and gave students again another reason to think twice before making terrible decisions.
All in all this demonstration was a great way to teach high school students to really think twice when situations like this happen. With prom coming up and just the future in general, some will hopefully think back to this demonstration. Mr Leonard, ASB Director really did an amazing job choreographing everything and deserves all the props.
Here is the video link to our 2023-2024 program.
