Ashleigh Heaton
Entertainment Editor

      Driving down the road, a person feels their cell phone vibrate in their pocket. Curious, they dig it out and glance at the message, laughing at what it says. Instantly, they begin to text back “lol” – but while their eyes are off the road, they don’t see a little girl run into the street, chasing her soccer ball.
      Now Coppell High School has to ask: was that text worth it?

The Problem

      Accidents caused by distracted driving have been on the rise since the invention of the cell phone and, more specifically, texting. In fact, experts said texting and driving is the equivalent to drinking and driving.
      “Basically, the single most destructive, dangerous thing you can do while driving now is texting,” Teen Leadership teacher Nicky Fryman said. “It’s hard enough while we’re driving to drive safely. Why do we want to add texting into the equation?”
      By texting, calling or even using a hands-free device, a driver averts their attention from the road – and even if this is momentary, it can mean the difference between life and death.
      “It isn’t where your hands are, it’s where your head is,” CHS principal Brad Hunt said. “Your hands might be on the steering wheel, but your head is in the conversation and you’re not paying attention and watching your surroundings.”
      The issue has become so large that it reached Oprah Winfrey, who began spreading awareness this year through her No Phone Zone Campaign via her talk show and Web site. She asked viewers to sign a pledge saying they would put the phone down and concentrate on the road while they were driving.
      Even before Oprah began championing for the cause, however, CHS students were taking the initiative against distracted driving. Last year, seniors Hiba Ibad and Diana Abou-saleh submitted a grant for a State Farm contest in which they examined the problems distracted driving presented and proposed possible solutions.
      “I’ve lost family members because of car accidents, and I know that there are a lot of families that are affected by it,” Ibad said. “We really wanted to make that idea evident in the high school so no more high school students would get hurt.”
      Another program committed to preventing phone-free driving is FocusDriven, which was founded by Jennifer Smith of Grapevine in 2008 after the loss of her mother in a distracted driving accident. The program has gained national recognition and was cited in a legislation passed by Congress declaring April National Distracted Driving Awareness Month as a key contributed to the movement.
      “Although everyone thinks they can [use their phone and drive], they can’t,” Smith said. “The science is there to prove it, and so are the thousands of lost loved ones across the country.”

The Reaction

      In response to the distracted driving epidemic, CHS decided to rally against it through the school and community in hopes of educating students on being better drivers and, in the end, save lives.
      “Just because you can get your license at 16 doesn’t mean that automatically you’re going to be the best driver ever. It takes practice, just like anything else,” Hunt said. “When you have a lot of young drivers like we do here at Coppell High School and you factor in the cell phone component, that just makes things even more risky for driving.”
      One of the ways CHS is spreading awareness is through a T-shirt drive, orchestrated by Fryman and her husband, Brad Fryman. The shirts feature a message on the front reading “Don’t tempt F8, that call or text can W8”, as well Oprah’s No Phone Zone pledge on the back where students can sign to advertise their commitment to becoming a safer driver.
      The idea for the shirts began with Nicky watching the Oprah episode featuring the dangers of texting while driving, which inspired her to spread the message. After coming up with a design with the help of her husband, she approached Hunt about selling to students within the school.
      “It’s a big mission for [Oprah], and it really tugged at the heartstrings of my husband and myself,” Nicky Fryman said. “We just thought, ‘Wow, we’ve got to do something.’”
      The idea received immediate approval from Hunt and garnered the support of Students Against Destructive Driving (SADD) and Interact Club. Soon, the program expanded past the T-shirt drive to instilling the lesson into MAP sessions and rallying throughout the school for the cause through posters, announcements and media exposure.
      “We need to be more aware of the ‘other driver’ who may be texting and who could end up hurting an innocent person,” SADD sponsor Malinda Seger said. “Our mission is to educate students that it’s not just people who drink and drive that we need to worry about, but every teen who owns a phone and decides to use it while driving.”
      Coppell is one of the few schools spreading the message at this magnitude and has gotten noticed for it.
      “I am excited to see what Coppell is doing and would love to see all the schools in the nation do the same type of program,” Smith said. “The teens cannot only learn what they can do to protect themselves and their friends while driving, but also take this information home and share it with their parents and get them to put the phone down, too.”
      Coppell’s efforts have even caught Oprah’s attention, who is interested in featuring CHS on her show as an example of community action for the cause. In response, a school-wide panoramic picture will be taken on April 23 at 1:30 p.m. featuring students and staff wearing the pledge shirt to send in to Oprah for a future episode; however, fame is not the main objective for the school.
      “We’re not doing it just to get on Oprah,” Hunt said. “Of course, that would be nice for our school, but the real reason why we’re doing this is to raise awareness.”
      Through student support and community involvement in the movement, Coppell is paving the way for a cell-free driving environment.
      “Right now, we really want to rally and get the message out,” Nicky Fryman said. “The sooner, the better, and more lives will be saved.”