On Thursday, May 3, students and faculty at De Soto High School participated in a school-wide Prom awareness activity, with the Grim Reaper. The event was hosted by the DHS Cat Pride group.
Cat Pride is a student-lead club that advocates healthy decision-making among students. Earlier this year, they hosted the Arrive Alive simulator, Bucks for Buckles seat-belt checkpoint, and have invited speakers such as Calvin Terrell to DHS.
At 8 a.m., the church bells rang for the first time. The church bells signified that a DHS student had “died” in a drunk driving accident.
Since the DHS prom will be held on May 5, this activity was made to promote smart decision-making the night of the dance. During prom season, student drunk-driving accidents occur more often than normal.
“It’s one thing to hear or read a statistic, and it’s another thing to have a visual representation of how many people can be impacted by drunk driving within an eight-hour period,” said Cat Pride sponsor Joe Kordalski.
After the bell rang, the Grim Reaper, senior Jaxon Hargrove, made his way to the dead student’s classroom to read them the details of their death.
At 9:30 a.m., freshman Aubrey Heer was informed that she was hit and killed by a drunk driver on her way to the mall.
Similarly, senior Mason Wedel died while driving drunk. He also killed another person that was involved in the accident.
Every half-hour a student was killed. Outside the office there was a grave yard with tombstones of the recently passed students. The purpose of the activity was to show students that fatal drunk-driving accidents can affect everyone and to promote healthy choices on Prom night.
However, changing students’ minds about drinking and driving is more difficult than it sounds.
“I think the activity is a great idea, and it’s powerful, but I don’t think it will reach the people that were planning on drinking the night of Prom,” sophomore Mackenzie Hill said.
Hopefully the Grim Reaper activity will reach students and help change their dangerous decisions into healthy ones.