43
Goggles make teens feel drunk
By jeanne starmack
struthers
After the first few beanbags flew well off their marks, it was clear that this was no ordinary cornhole tournament.
Struthers High School students had a handicap in these games Tuesday morning — goggles that worked against them when it came to throwing straight or seeing straight or walking straight.
“That was nowhere near it!” said Alexa Opencar, 17, a junior, after her beanbag toss. “That’s crazy!”
Normally, she said, she’s pretty good at the game. But with her goggles, everything was blurry. They made her feel drunk, and drunks aren’t so good at cornhole.
They aren’t so good at driving, either — which was the point the games were intended to make.
Led by the schools’ diversion officer, Yvonne Wilson, and their resource officer, D.J. Aldish, juniors and seniors got to experience what it’s like to be really, really drunk.
“Things that look like they’re in front of you aren’t really there,” said Will Clark, 17, a junior.
They weren’t very good at throwing or catching volleyballs. “Be careful bending over,” junior class adviser Mary Bundy warned Nate Keiper, 17, as he tried to pick up one.
“It kind of feels like everything’s moving, but you can feel yourself not moving, but you try to move with it,” Keiper explained. “I bent over and felt like I was gonna fall down.”
As for walking a straight line, forget it. Aldish tried to coach them through a typical field-sobriety test, but the goggles set them up for failure.
“I thought I was gonna fall over, said Elizabeth Hromyak, 17. The goggles made her feel “woozy.”
Dan Sacui, 17, had his share of trouble walking the line. Nonetheless, he wasn’t impressed.
“I don’t think it’s really like being drunk,” he said.
Friday is prom night for Struthers. Aldish and Wilson were hoping that Tuesday’s games would drive the point — don’t get drunk.
The goggles, said Wilson, were borrowed from local police agencies.
Students also watched a video about two Massachusetts sisters who were killed after one of them got drunk and drove.
As a diversion officer, Wilson said, she works to keep students out of the court system. She teaches anger management and anti- bullying.
Aldish is a city police officer who is assigned to the schools full time when they are in session. He deals with criminal acts in the schools, Wilson said.
The two collaborated on the program, she said.
After the games, Aldish had a serious message for the assembly: “A DUI right now — three days in jail and $1,900 just to go to court,” he said.