TIM PRATT
STARKVILLE — As images of mangled vehicles and car accident victims flashed on the Greensboro Center auditorium screen Tuesday night, many of the 40 or 50 Starkville School District students in attendance had to avert their eyes.
For many, the images shown in the California Highway Patrol’s “Red Asphalt” driver education video were just too graphic.
But that was the point, said Mississippi Highway Patrol Public Affairs Officer Brian Mobley, who showed the video about the consequences of irresponsible driving as part of the Project Pass town hall meeting at the Greensboro Center. Project Pass is a U.S. Department of Education alcohol-prevention program under way at Starkville High School and in other school districts around the country.
The town hall meeting Tuesday featured performances by Starkville High School’s Project Pass dance team, dubbed “H.Y.P.E.,” or Helping Youth Through Prevention and Entertainment, but it also allowed students and their parents to see firsthand what has happened to drivers who operated vehicles while under the influence or drove in an unsafe manner.
“The thing I really wanted y’all to get out of that is this is not something you hear about, this is not something you talk about, this is not something you see on TV in another city or another town,” Mobley said. “Stuff like that happens right here in Oktibbeha County and I know a lot of you don’t really realize how precious life is … you don’t realize how precious you are to your parents.”
The video had the desired effect on Henderson Intermediate School sixth-grader Treyvez Johnson, 12, and his mother, Donna Johnson, who were in attendance to support Donna Johnson’s niece on the H.Y.P.E. dance team, Shanquella Roberts.
“I was glad that there was somebody to bring something, some real pictures, so the children could really see what happens in these wrecks,” Donna Johnson said. “They could see it with their eyes and not just go by hearsay.”
Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.
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