Students will be presented pre-prom lesson (04/20/06)

Before local juniors and seniors slip into sassy dresses or straighten their bow ties, they will learn some real life lessons.

Jay County High School students will see and hear first-hand how quickly accidents can forever change lives, or end them. They also will learn how heat of the moment decisions could alter future plans.

Local emergency workers are hoping that by Friday afternoon, real life will hit home for these students and challenge them to make the right decisions in the future.

“I think it’s a reality check for (the students),” said Pat Frazee, one of the organizers of Operation Prom. This is the sixth year for the event.

“We want them to have a good time (at prom), but we want them to have a safe time without drugs, alcohol and sex,” she said.

The JCHS prom will be held Saturday night at the Jay Community Center.

This year’s program is the largest so far. Plans include a mock fatal accident in which one of the vehicles will be set on fire, hearing a local mother describe what it was like to lose her son in a car accident. Another mother also will talk about a January accident which left her son and his car wrapped around a tree for several hours. A spokesperson for the Pregnancy Care Center will talk about the importance of safe sex and abstinence.

Jay Emergency Medical Service workers, police, firefighters, school officials and other emergency personnel are working together to make this year’s Operation Prom the biggest and most effective so far.

“We’ve never had anything quite this big,” said Dr. Wood Barwick, principal of JCHS. “We’ve simulated a lot of things, but we will have a real script and emergency personnel here. I think it will be very beneficial” to the students, he said.

“Young kids think they’re so (invincible),” Frazee said. “If we reach one student then we feel it’s worth it.”

Plans for this year include a three-vehicle accident with fatalities and multiple injuries. One of the vehicles will be set on fire. The accident will be paged out over police and fire scanners as if it is real.

“It will come in as a 911 call,” Frazee said.

“We’ll run it just like a regular accident.”

“When we call it out we’ll say it’s a mock disaster so people (who have scanners) don’t start freaking out,” said Jason White, another organizer of the event.

Some of those injured will be extracted from the vehicles by Rescue 19 and local firefighters, then transported to Jay County Hospital by JEMS. Jay County Coroner Mark Barnett also is expected to be at the scene of the accident to pronounce two of the students dead. The dead will then be loaded into hearses and taken to a funeral home.

“The parents of the deceased will be there, and the parents of the injured,” said Paulette Wagner, another event organizer. Wagner, Frazee and White all work for JEMS.

A teenager who is driving while high on marijuana and intoxicated will cause the accident. A local towing company will provide previously-wrecked vehicles for the accident.

Before the wreck occurs, students will have the opportunity to drive golf carts while wearing goggles that give the impression of being intoxicated. The students will have to maneuver around cones. Police also will have students do field sobriety tests while wearing the goggles. Jay County and Portland police will help with this event. The golf cart event was held last year, but the car accident and car fire were rained out.

After the accident, the students will move to the auditorium to hear guest speakers discuss the dangers of driving recklessly and the consequences of sex.

Heather Binegar, the mother of Zachary Wolford, who was killed in April of 2005 in a single-vehicle accident, plans to speak. His cousin, Cory Price, also was killed in the accident. Binegar will tell the students what it was like for her to lose her son in a car accident. A Jay County deputy also is expected to discuss the dangers of drinking and driving and driver distractions.

Ralph Frazee, director of Jay County Emergency Management, also plans to discuss and show photos of an accident which occurred in January. In that accident, Brandon Hough, Portland, was trapped in his car for almost four hours after it wrapped around a tree. His mother, Toni Mason, plans to tell the students how she felt the night of the accident. Mason thought her son died in the accident, and later learned he survived. Hough will be attending the event, Pat Frazee said.

Although drugs and alcohol were not involved in either accident, Frazee said she felt these two wrecks could encourage students to drive more safely and cautiously.

“We want them to have a good time but to be aware while they’re doing it,” she said.

Operation Prom “emphasizes using good judgment and not getting hurt,” Barwick said.

Also expected to speak is Patty Johnston, executive director of the Pregnancy Care Center. She will talk about safe sex and abstinence.

Frazee started Operation Prom in 2000, after hearing about similar pre-prom activities at other schools. Events in previous years include putting a casket with faces of children “killed” in a staged accident inside the school, having a K-9 search a vehicle for drugs and booking students into the Jay County Jail.

Frazee, Wagner and White find satisfaction in their work for the event.

“You can tell just by looking at their faces,” that we’re reaching them, White said. “I’ve seen some kids cry.”

“Some kids get very emotional,” Frazee said.

“I think it brings home what could happen if they don’t use good judgment,” Barwick said. “I think it does” make them think.[[In-content Ad]]