by Ashley Attanucci
Staff Writer

As drug and alcohol abuse grows rampant among teenagers, Coppell High School’s freshmen Teen Leadership/Health classes take initiative to give students a first-hand experience on what drunk driving is like.

On May 5, freshmen Teen Leadership/ Health classes took a step out into the hall and into the shoes of a drunk driver with a demonstration of Fatal Vision. Simulation of being under the influence was made capable by dizzy-making goggles as students were challenged to walk a straight-line, pick up dropped keys and catch a ball.

“It seems easy whenever you’re not drunk, while [actually] your body acts totally different,” freshman Megan Kennedy said. “It’s just another reason not to drink, and if you do [drink], just don’t drink and drive or you’ll end up doing stupid stuff.”

The demonstration made a lasting impression on many freshmen like Kennedy.

“It taught me that being drunk is scary and I definitely never want to have to experience that ever again” freshman Lauren Ussery said. “Plus it made students look really weird; everyone was stumbling everywhere and didn’t know what was going on.”

Campus Resource Officer Ricky Jimenez participates in the demo every year to spread awareness of the effects of drug abuse and driving while intoxicated.

“It makes students aware of the consequences of drinking by letting them know they can’t perform simple tasks when under the influence,” Jimenez said. “I hope [that from the demo] they will learn to become responsible drinkers, not abuse [alcohol] and not drink and drive or drink to the point of intoxication [at 21].”

The Standardized Field Sobriety Test (or SFST), the test conducted by officers to test whether a suspicious person is intoxicated, includes HGN (following an officer’s finger), walk and turn and the one-leg stand; students were able to practice the later of the two with Fatal Vision goggles.

“I want students to feel it in their own skin and bodies,” Teen Leadership/ Health teacher Nicky Fryman said. “I want them to feel how they thought they could finish some of the simplest tasks in life [while under the influence].”

The goggles experience corresponded with the classes’ current curriculum, which includes watching videos on the effects of drug and alcohol use and open class discussion.