A Prom Night Plan

Avoiding the Perils of Drunk Driving

By Julia Rosien

Students at Glen Rock High School in Glen Rock, N.J., feel their mock demonstrations are successful with their peers. It's real education before the big night.

A week before the prom, the staged accident involves a smashed car and students looking hurt or dead. Paramedics arrive and start cleaning up the bodies as students look on. Rescue workers bring out the body bags, and the reality of drinking and driving is instantly realized. Some kids scoff, believing it could never happen to them. But many take it seriously.

Catherine Nauccme's kids thought the whole thing was hokey at first. "They heard the words of the drink and drive campaign, sloughed it off as 'corny' but the visual, thankfully, stayed with them," she says. It's just not cool to be bleeding on the hood of a crashed car.

In areas where there is no organized effort to deter drinking and driving on prom night, parents may be required to tackle the issue themselves.

Barbara Mullins of North Little Rock, Ark., says her daughter's school does nothing she's aware of about the issue of drinking and driving. Mullins isn't worried about her daughter as much as she's worried about the other kids who may be drinking and driving. "We've invited her boyfriend [who lives across the state] to come for the weekend, and I'll drive them or they'll go with other kids in a rented limo," she says. Mullins hopes there won't be drinking, but fears there may be, so she involves herself and makes sure her daughter knows she is there for her.

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