Every 15 Minutes

Every 15 Minutes is a national program developed by a police officer to address the teen drunk driving epidemic.  The program’s name comes from data in the early 1990’s that every 15 minutes someone in the United States dies in an alcohol-related traffic accident.  In 1997 a Youth Center participant, a high school junior, was vacationing in Washington State when she learned of this program and thought it would be a great addition to the teen programming offered by the Youth Center and would be of specific benefit to her peers at Los Alamitos High School.  The Youth Center first researched the program and then began taking steps to implement it.  We formed partnerships with all of the necessary agencies needed to implement this dramatic, life-changing program.  Acting as the Lead Agency, the Youth Center collaborates with Los Alamitos High School, Los Alamitos Police Department, Seal Beach Police Department, Cypress Police Department, Orange County Sheriff’s Department, California Highway Patrol, Orange County Fire Authority, Westminster Memorial Park, Orange County Jail, and numerous local businesses.  Beginning in the spring of 1999, and every-other-year since, Every 15 Minutes has been conducted on the campus of Los Alamitos High School.

2011 marked the 7^th time the Youth Center delivered this dramatic and historically effective program.  Approximately 6-months prior to implementation, an invitation to play a role in the program is extended to high school junior and senior year students.  Of the 200+ applications received a total of 40 students representing a cross section of high school social groups and ethnicity are selected.  Along with their parents, the youth go through several months of training focused on maximizing the impact of the program on their peers and within the community.

Life's lessons are best learned through experience. Unfortunately, when the target audience is teens and the topic is drinking and driving, experience is not the teacher of choice.

The Every 15 Minutes Program offers real-life experience without the real-life risks. This emotionally charged program is an event designed to dramatically instill teenagers with the potentially dangerous consequences of drinking alcohol. This powerful program challenges students to think about drinking, personal safety, and the responsibility of making mature decisions when lives are involved.

During the first day events one student is removed from class every 15 minutes. A police officer will immediately enter the classroom to read an obituary which has been written by the "dead" student's parent(s) - explaining the circumstances of their classmate's demise and the contributions the student has made to the school and the community. From that point on "victims" will not see, speak or in any way interact with other students for the remainder of the program.  Simultaneously, uniformed officers will make mock death notifications to the parents of these children at their home, place of employment or business.

During lunch, a simulated traffic collision is conducted on the school grounds. Rescue workers treat injured student participants. These students will experience firsthand, the sensations of being involved in a tragic, alcohol-related collision. The coroner will handle fatalities on the scene, while the injured students will be extricated by the jaws-of-life manned by Fire-Fighters and Paramedics. Police Officers will investigate, arrest, and book the student "drunk driver". Student participants will continue their experience by an actual trip to the morgue, the hospital emergency room, and to the police department jail for the purpose of being booked for "drunk driving".

At the end of the day, those students who participated in the staged accident as well as those who were made-up as the "living dead" are transported to the County Courthouse where they participate in a mock trial, experience first-hand holding cells (drunk tank) and to a mortuary where they will select a casket for a loved-one killed in an alcohol related accident and visit the morgue where they will witness the process of preparing the dead for burial or cremation.  Finally, they are transported to a local hotel for an overnight student retreat. The retreat will simulate the separation from friends and family. A support staff of counselors and police officers facilitate the retreat.

During the most powerful program of the retreat, the students will be taken through an audio - visualization of their own death. Then each student will write a letter to his or her parents starting out with . . .

"Dear Mom and Dad, every fifteen minutes someone in the United States dies from an alcohol related traffic collision, and today I died. I never had the chance to tell you......."

At the same time, their parents will also be in a retreat and asked to write similar letters to their children. These letters will be shared the following day when students and parents will be reunited at a school assembly.

The students will engage exercises and some fun and games. Impaired simulator goggles will be used to allow students to experience firsthand the potentially fatal consequences of alcohol and drug impairment. The goggles will allow students the opportunity to understand the dangers of impaired driving without taking a drop of alcohol or using drugs of any type. Research shows that those who learn from hands-on experience retain two to four times more than those who learn from just listening, or from listening and seeing.

On the following morning, a mock funeral service is held at the High School. The assembly will began with a video of normal school day activities including scenes from the first day of the program, the "Grim Reaper" and the staged accident. The assembly is hosted by a facilitator who guides the audience through the devastating effects of losing a loved one due to a bad choice. Presenters will include students who will read letters to their parents, parents who will read letters to their children and a Keynote speaker who will speak of his first-hand-knowledge of the tragic consequences of his drinking and driving.

The focus of the assembly stresses that the decision to consume alcohol can affect many more people than just the one who drinks. This very emotional and heart-wrenching event illustrates to students, the potentially dangerous consequences of their use of alcohol, regardless of how casual they believe their use may be.

Every 15 Minutes is just another one of the tools we use, however dramatic it may seem, to get youth to make positive life choices.  We create this elaborate display to set the stage for change by exposing them to the “real” experience involved in drunk driving.  Our ultimate goal is to implant a filter in their minds that leads them to positive choices when confronted with drinking and driving.  Youth often believe that they are invincible.  This exercise is designed to shock them into understanding that life is precious and can be lost in an instant by one poor choice.  This program benefits the 3,160 students that attend Los Alamitos High School.

The mock budget for this program listed on the California Highway Patrols’ website ranges from $20,000-$25,000.  The Youth Center has never paid more than $16,000 due to the generous in-kind community support.  In 2011, we received a grant in the amount of $9,999 from the California Highway Patrol and the Department of Highway Safety through our ongoing relationship with the officers involved in our program.