Every year on the week before prom, many high schools in California promote a message of sober driving through a program called Every Fifteen Minutes created by the CHP. One our longtime faculty, Dave Lewis spearheads this program with a team of dedicated teachers. What makes this program so impactful is how committed Cypress PD and local EMS is in supporting this program. They go all out. It starts with a former alumnus who happens to be 7 feet tall dressed as the Grim Reaper. He and his entourage of police officers and students go from class to class during the school day to collect the dead, predetermined students who have agreed to be part of the program by attending meetings and committing to sober driving. Unsuspecting students are often caught off-guard as their peers are plucked from the classroom and their obituary is read aloud.

The event moves into the second stage later that day as a car crash is reenacted on Orange Avenue near the school. Actually paramedics, fire department and police arrive on the scene to demonstrate what would happen in the event of a real wreck. Our drunk driver is given a field sobriety test, and bodies are taken to the morgue. While this all seems a bit theatrical, the looks on the faces of students during the program tells you everything you need to know.

Huge shout to Dave Lewis for looping me into this project at Cypress High School.

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Every Fifteen Minutes @ Cypress High School