A mock date with death

Christine Carrillo

Their hands covered their mouths. Tears rolled down their faces. Some

squeezed their eyes tightly closed and others stared at the ground.

They had entered a mortuary preparation room.

They stood among dead bodies covered in white sheets, could feel

the cold air flowing from the cooler that held them and could smell

the chemicals used to prepare them.

They had entered a world that represented the fatal realities of

drunk driving. They were 23 Newport Harbor High School juniors and

seniors that learned about the dyer consequences of their choices

through their participation in the first day of the Every 15 Minutes

program on Tuesday.

“This is a chance to give kids a realistic picture of these issues

... and give them a chance to see the impact of their decisions on

others,” said Newport Beach Police Officer Steve Martinez, who

organized the program. “These kids are helping us deliver the

message. They’re extending themselves as best they can and the

community is extending itself. They’re involved in the message.”

The students heard graphic stories of an embalmer’s experiences

preparing the bodies of people killed in alcohol-related accidents,

watched a young man being sentenced to 14 years in state prison and

visited a memorial filled with the names of people killed in

alcohol-related accidents.

The 23 students who represented those names were the living dead.

“I think it’s a real dose of reality,” said Harvey Chernack, who

watched his 18-year-old son Tyler Chernack, who played the drunk

driver, get found guilty of three counts of vehicular manslaughter.

“I think they all know that they are a step away from this happening

to them.”

Witnessing how one choice could lead to death, years in prison or

a lifetime of grief, the students who participated in the program

gained a better understanding of the weight their decisions carry.

They got to see the reality of the grim statistic: Every 15 minutes,

someone is killed or seriously injured in an alcohol-related accident

in the United States.

“I wanted to participate because I wanted to give people an

awareness of just how big [the problem] really is,” said 18-year-old

Lupe Valencia, one of the students killed in the mock accident. “It’s

a big lesson.”

From the students’ trip to Pacific View Memorial Park to Harbor

Justice Center, the students experienced a portion of the two-day

program. The program, which ends with an assembly today, includes a

mock car accident that killed three students, an arrest, a booking

and a variety of speakers. At today’s assembly, both the junior and

senior classes will hear the personal stories of those affected, real

or concocted, by drunk driving.

With every segment of the program, the potential reality of their

choices remains.

“It’s kind of scary because you just never know if it could happen

to you,” 16-year-old Sakira Haynes, a junior who was among the living

dead, said. “It’s happening every 15 minutes ... and you realize you

could be next.”