Tag Archives: Students

EASTVALE: Every Fifteen Minutes Educates Teens on Drunk Driving

ERHS presents "Every 15 Minutes" to teach students the dangers of Drunk Driving. Photos by: Emily Aguilar

ERHS presents “Every 15 Minutes” to teach students the dangers of Drunk Driving. Photos by: Emily Aguilar

ERHS

BY: EMILY AGUILAR

EASTVALE –  Eleanor Roosevelt High School conducted the Every Fifteen Minute simulation on March 20 – 21 to educate students on the dangers of drunk driving. The program is conducted by selecting twenty-two students and their families to act out a simulation in which a few of them were killed in a car-related accident caused by someone being intoxicated. These students are then pulled out of their classrooms and homes for two days in order to make their “death” feel real to all involved.

On the first day, students were taken to Scholar Way to witness a “car crash”, equipped with law enforcement, actors, and a Grim Reaper who walked around the dead students to show the brutality of drunk driving. While watching the eerily real looking blood covering the bodies of their fellow classmates, some students were distraught by what they witnessed. “The events that are taking place today are fake, however, they happen so often, they feel real,” remarked Senior Alexis Castro.

The following day, students were taken to the gym where they attended the memorial service of their beloved classmates. A sense of vulnerability seemed to weigh upon the audience while they were subjected to a slideshow of the deceased students before their death as well as seeing their coffins surrounding a group of family members of the deceased. The mock-memorial service proved to soften the hearts of the audience when the ‘living dead’ students, their families, and a victim of drinking and driving tearfully read out their letters to the audience that described what they would tell the world if they had an opportunity to speak from the beyond.

Although emotional, the simulation made students take the challenge to not drink and drive and value their lives and the lives of others. When asked why he felt this simulation was necessary, the school’s principal, Mr. Goins stated that it “puts the thing we hear about into a form in which we can see and feel the tragedy.” The

Inland Empire: Technology and Social Media

BY RAMON AGUILAR

I like to say that I have seen enough incidents that involved students with today’s technology to prepare me for when my six-year-old daughter grows up and is surrounded by her peers with unlimited access to technology and social media.

As an educator inside the classroom, I always explained that using their smart phones or iPods to listen to music while they do their work, was a privilege. I made sure they understood the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. The letter of the law, which follows district policy, states that there are no electronics allowed to be powered up on campus. The spirit of the law is up for interpretation, which means that they are allowed to use their electronic devices to listen to music, but not to text or surf the web.

Unfortunately, teenagers are unable to control themselves and do go ahead and break the spirit of the law guidelines, thus causing an all electronic policy to be implemented and enforced. Teenagers have a high tendency to display a sense of entitlement when it comes to their electronics. They will literally tell you that it is their devices and that have the right to use them as they please. I see this issue as one of many, but definitely not the most severe issue or liability.

When I first started working out of the classroom as a Dean of Discipline at the high school level, I dealt with three to five electronic issues every single week. The least severe were when students would use the electronics in class without permission and I was asked to intervene. I would ask student to turn over the electronics to me and I would have to notify parents of the incident. Parents and students were notified in writing the school policy on electronics, and were warned that next time the electronic would be kept until parents came by the school to pick it up themselves. Other alternatives were that students were given the option to do four hours of clean detention on Saturdays in order to receive their devices, this was the most favorable for parents, many insisted that their child do time for the crime.

The other serious issues were students carrying around electronics which placed them in danger. Often, they were attacked by other students in order to steal the items from them. I lost count on how many times students would exit the bathroom during lunch time, where they had just been assaulted by other students. Especially the boys, who would often come out bruised and bleeding from their heads or noses.

Lockers being broken into during PE were the most popular ways that these opportunist thieves would attack and steal all items left inside the lockers. As a school official, I would have to remind parents of students that were robbed, that school policy states that the school site would not be responsible for items of value, especially electronics. It was a hard lesson for both parents and students, especially when families work so hard to save money to provide these types of items for the students.

I have to admit that I took great pleasure in catching all the thieves and assaulters that were involved in these aforementioned incidents. I am fortunate that during my short time with the California Highway Patrol as an officer, I obtained the skills and experiences that allowed me to work effectively and collaborate with school police in these types of incidents.

The most serious incidents were the ones that the victims were unaware that they had become victims. This is commonly referred to as “sexting”. Every time we would encounter phones with pictures of underage girls revealing parts or all of themselves in a compromising picture, these would cause a very complicated situation. As a parent, I would want to know if my children have been victimized by having their pictures online.

It has been said that our children are less likely to be vulnerable to online strangers or being a victim of some other form of online bullying, if we as parents developed open communication with our children. In my opinion, if our children were able to trust us about their problems, they would also be more likely to trust us and respect our rules and guidelines when it came to using technology and social media.