Prom Fright : Consequences of Drunk Driving Spelled Out at Student Assemblies

Instead of hiring a limo, renting a tux and choosing a corsage, Shawn has been helping teen-agers prepare for their proms by telling them what happened the last time he got drunk and drove home.

After an afternoon of partying with his buddies last spring, Shawn, 18, drove his car off a cliff as he sped along Ortega Highway. The car flipped 10 times. He is now serving nine months at Los Pinos Conservation Camp in Lake Elsinore for felony drunk driving.

“I put my best friend in a wheelchair for life,” Shawn said. “He’s never gonna walk again because I got drunk and I wanted to drive.”

This spring, Shawn and other youths from Los Pinos have been speaking at school assemblies throughout Orange County in an effort to keep young people from drinking and driving on prom night. The Sober Prom assemblies, sponsored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, are timed to coincide with prom season, which kicks into high gear this month.

“I should be going to a prom like you guys,” Shawn told a group of juniors and seniors at El Modena High School recently. “You’re gonna ride in a limo and dance and everything. I’m going to be in bed at 9:30 that night.”

Although nobody knows for sure just how many teens drink and drive on prom and graduation nights, school administrators say the problem needs to be addressed.

“There are very few 18- and 19-year-olds who have not consumed alcohol at one time or another,” said Don Wise, principal at Pacifica High School, another school where the MADD assembly was presented. “Whether you like it or not, that’s a fact of life.”

Few administrators want to point to problems at their schools or in their districts, but they acknowledge being unable to control what teen-agers do after the dance. Some of the youths drink at parties or in hotel rooms after the prom and then drive around.

In 1989, six Orange County youths ages 15 to 18 were killed in automobile accidents after drinking and 161 were injured, according to the California Highway Patrol. Of these, one death and 34 of the injuries occurred in May or June.

MADD is not the only group trying to keep teens from drinking and driving during and after proms and graduations.

Many high schools have mounted their own campaigns. At Pacifica High School, where a 300-member student club combats substance abuse year-round, only limousine companies that will not allow alcoholic beverages are allowed to advertise at the school. Students are given information about drinking and driving when they pick up their prom tickets.

The California Highway Patrol runs a sober graduation campaign, sponsoring television and radio advertisements, giving away key chains and bumper stickers and encouraging community events, spokesman Steve Kohler said.

Friar Tux Shop, one of the sponsors for MADD’s program, runs its own program and put on 16 assemblies in Orange and Los Angeles counties this spring.

The message is the same as MADD’s, but much of the Friar Tux program is devoted to fashion and dancing. Models show off new tuxedos and prom dresses and do the lambada, break dance and other moves.

“Students come away with a good message that the prom and dancing and senior friends are what it’s all about and not trying to get polluted or something like that,” said Steve Meskell, vice president of Friar Tux Shop.

Al Arredondo, a CHP officer assigned to South Los Angeles who lives in Orange County, also speaks at the Sober Prom assemblies. He recruits Orange County businesses to donate prizes to students who attend the assemblies. The prizes, including prom dresses, limousine rentals and flowers, were given away during lunchtime by Mark (The Shark) McKay, a disc jockey from KEZY-FM.

McKay shared his own drunk driving story with the students. Five years ago, his girlfriend was killed just two weeks before their senior prom at San Bernardino High School. She had been drinking and mistakenly stepped on the gas instead of the brake. McKay, now an Anaheim resident, went to his prom anyway, but said it was like something out of a horror movie. “Everybody stopped and turned and stared at me,” he said. “I don’t want anyone else to have to go through that experience.”

Reaction to the Sober Prom program, now in its second year, has been positive from students and school administrators.

“I would say that it really brought home to the students the actual consequences of doing things,” said Robert Laxton, coordinator of activities at Santa Ana High School. “When you are a teen-ager, you have this philosophy that it always happens to someone else. Having these young men come in and talk about their lives showed the consequences.”

Jerid Maybaum, 18, who helped set up the program at El Modena, agreed: “I think they got across the message that you can ruin your life with one night.”