Freshman Thomas Whalen, sophomore Emma Weinswig, junior Nick Goldman and seniors Caylen De Los Reyes, Ben Weinswig, and Conor Wynne-Parry put on an assembly to encourage students to “draw the line to support and protect your Tam High community by joining us in putting an end to drunk driving” on May 27 during tutorial.
Goldman and Wynne-Parry shared their first-hand experience of the consequences of drunk driving. The two were in a car accident on the night of December 21. They were struck head on by an intoxicated Tam student and were hospitalized as a result.
“I hope that it will be a line that people don’t cross,” Emma Weinswig said. “[People] can do stuff with their friends and have fun, but when it comes to making it home that day, make a plan or figure out a way [you’re] going to get home or stay where [you] are, don’t try to leave when [you] can’t safely drive.”
Ben Weinswig agrees and hopes that the assembly will reach students that have previously brushed off warnings against drinking and driving. “Growing up here at Tam, going through high school, I remember the mindset of being young and you drink, you go to parties…it can happen so fast that you just end up in a car with someone and make bad decisions,” said Ben Weinswig. “You’re always told by your parents not to drink and drive, by whoever your mentors are, don’t do it. But I think it takes something more to get kids at our age to see how [drunk driving] can kill you. So that’s what this was. Nick and Connor…very well could’ve been dead.”
The team was trying to reach the upperclassmen who are currently driving, but De Los Reyes feels it is just as important if not more so to catch the attention of the underclassmen who will soon be behind the wheel.
“Even though we love to talk to the older classes, the juniors and seniors, our primary goal was getting into the younger classes, the freshmen and sophomores, who in the coming years are going to be getting their licenses and starting to drive,” De Los Reyes said.