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Outlook is usually grim for drunk drivers
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Neighbors | Shaiyla Hakeem .SADD member Jessica Gonda (front) has been visited by the Grim Reaper, Brendan Paull. She is unable to speak for the remaining time of the school day. Silence symbolizes the consequences of a fellow student being killed by a drunk driver.
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Neigbors | Shaiyla Hakeem.SADD faculty advisor Chris Grabert (left) hands black balloons to Brendan Paull (center) and Caitlyn Erra. The balloons signify death and are given to students from the Grim Reaper to show that they have been killed by a drunk driver.
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Neighbors | Shaiyla Hakeem .SADD member Michelle Kordupel (left) has killed Jessica Gonda and a tombstone has been placed in the high school's main hallway in memory of her. The back of Kordupel's shirt reads " I just killed Jess Gonda" with the front saying "Because I drove drunk."
By SHAIYLA HAKEEM
Students were silenced as they were symbolically killed one by one in an activity demonstrating how driving while intoxicated can produce a fatality.
Boardman High School’s Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) members delivered a hypothetical scenario to the student body May 6.
SADD president Brendan Paull, who has been a part of the organization for the past three years, dressed as the Grim Reaper and roamed the school halls unexpectedly visiting SADD students in their classes.
He delivered a black balloon to the student to sympolize death. After receiving the balloon, the students were not allowed to speak for the rest of the school day.
“If they are dead, then they cannot speak,” Paull said.
The Grim Reaper activity is an annual event for SADD and is used to raise awareness about the potential outcomes of drinking and driving. For the activity, SADD members split into two groups. One group was classified as drunk drivers and wore red shirts, while the victims who were killed wore black shirts.
The writing on the red shirts stated that they killed a student because they were driving drunk. The print on the black shirts said: “What if.” The short phrase was intended to make students imagine what it would be like to have a peer gone due to destructive decisions.
“What if the person sitting next to you in class was killed by a drunk driver?” Paull said.
Severe injuries and fatalities due to drunk driving can be seen on the news and in the newspaper. Paull said he has read several news articles where someone was killed or injured by a drunk driver. He joined SADD to spread awareness of the dangers.
“I have always wondered how it would be if that was my brother driving or if he were the victim,” he said. “I have always wanted to prevent that from happening and do my best to help people become aware of the dangers.”
SADD is comprised of more than 50 BHS students and has been a part of the school for more than 20 years.
Christine Grabert, who has been the SADD faculty advisor for the past 12 years, said a sophomore from Boardman was recently killed in an automobile accident in Campbell. She thinks the Grim Reaper activity should be beneficial in making students think twice about drinking and driving due to their first-hand experience with the recent fatal crash.
“Do they think about it? I think they do because they have seen it,” Grabert said. “I didn’t hear of any alcohol being involved, but speed was involved, which is a poor decision.”