Safe and S.A.D.D.
May 9, 2023
Kim Boatwright talking to students about how drunk driving has affected her life. (photo taken by Jackson Anderson)
The Fair Grove High School’s Students Against Destructive Decisions club, or S.A.D.D. for short, has been focusing largely on preventing drunk driving with big events such as prom and graduation coming up.
This club’s main purpose is to promote safe decisions to the students of Fair Grove. The teacher sponsoring this club is Lindsay Dunning who teaches biology and chemistry in the high school.
S.A.D.D. has done many projects throughout the year to keep students involved in the school and to stay safe. Recent events that S.A.D.D. has been in charge of include The Grim Reaper Project and Buckle Up Buttercup.
Hannah Bruner (11), a vice president of S.A.D.D., stated, “SADD put on The Grim Reaper Project on April 20th for drunk driving awareness. The Grim Reaper Project is an event that takes place for the entire school day.”
She explained further, “S.A.D.D. officers come into class and pull students out, when they come back they come back covered in fake blood, cuts, and bruises all over. The students pulled out of class aren’t allowed to talk for the rest of the school day. This project is a serious simulation of the physical representation of the aftermath of drunk driving.”
Bruner added, “Statistics tell us that one teen is killed every 50 minutes by a drunk driving accident. So, by the end of the school day, there will be 8 students representing the number of teens killed in one school day. There will be many others representing the severely injured and people having to live with the aftermath of the trauma and injury.”
Another S.A.D.D. officer, Taylor Green (11), has been involved in bringing awareness to the club in a few different ways. Green states, “Some of the big things that S.A.D.D. has been doing to draw awareness to drunk driving and overall safe driving is “Buckle Up Buttercup” where we stood outside the exit of the school and gave every person who was buckled a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.”
Green continued, “The big event that we did was we brought in a guest speaker to really relay the message and try to get personal with people to talk about how serious of a topic this is.”
As Fair Grove High School prom approaches for juniors, seniors, and anyone they invite, the students will need to make good decisions on the road to make sure they are safe. Bruner exclaims, “S.A.D.D. is bringing awareness to drunk driving around prom by having all of these assemblies, events, and true life stories that bring light to the actual consequences of drunk driving and that make people stop and think about who they could be affecting by making poor decisions.”
S.A.D.D. is looking for responsible students to become officers in the upcoming years. They decided on next year’s officers on April 21 and are excited about what is to come with this club.