Police officers visited 20 different classes at a suburban San Diego high school a couple of weeks ago and told each class of kids that students from their class had been killed in a drunk driving accident. Naturally, the kids became hysterical. They began texting each other, kids in other schools, and parents. There were numerous meltdowns, breakdowns and freak outs, which should have been expected. Hours later, the kids were told that the whole thing had been a hoax set up by the police, school officials, and the kids who had been selected to “die.” The point was to scare the kids into not drinking and driving. Once they were told they had been lied to, the students became enraged. There is an article about this shocking incident here. Maybe next year they can pull each student out one by one and tell them both of their parents have been killed by crackheads to scare them away from drugs.
I understand that the adults, who should have known better, had the best of intentions, but this was extremely stupid and is likely to backfire. Kids don’t like to have their emotions toyed with and to be tricked to be taught lessons. My opinion is that they are less likely to take this issue seriously in the future because of this. Also, the drama generated by these fake deaths may actually be appealing to some teenagers and make them less likely to fear their own real death. This exercise lacked all common sense and is another example of the forest being lost for the trees when it comes to public relations regarding DUI.