IRVINE– On Wednesday, April 29, and Thursday, April 30, a dark cloud hovered over Beckman as members of the Irvine Police Department, along with a selected group of Beckman students and staff, initiated the Every 15 Minutes Program during fourth period. Every 15 Minutes is a two-day program designed to teach high school juniors and seniors the dangers of drinking and driving by putting them in a very real situation that brings them face to face with the consequences of teen drinking. The program is built upon the fact that “Every 15 Minutes” someone is killed in a drunk-driving related incident. 

    For seniors Sonaz Izadi and Alex Sellers, Every 15 Minutes has been on their minds for quite some time. Izadi and Sellers helped plan this program with the Every 15 Minutes coordinator from the Irvine Police Department, Shiree Lind. With the help of these two seniors, Beckman’s administration chose 30 students and one teacher out of the 100 applicants to participate in Every 15 Minutes. As a newly established group on campus, Every 15 Minutes participants gathered in the dance room for secret meetings throughout the months of February and March to prepare for the big event. 

    On the morning of April 29, the program was put into play. During first, second, and third period, a police officer dressed up as the Grim Reaper went around the school pulling the Every 15 Minutes participants out of class. One by one, these selected students were taken away by the Grim Reaper, who represented death as it takes away teenagers when they are killed in alcohol-related car accidents. Izadi and Sellers joined the Grim Reaper as he made his rounds, placing a single rose on each student’s desk after they were removed and reading their obituaries—written by the parents—to the class. Pictures of these students were hung up on the wall next to their obituaries, and the roses on the desks prevented other students from sitting in these special seats. 

        Once removed from class, Every 15 Minutes participants went straight to the Performing Arts Center (PAC) to prepare for the next part of the program. From that point on, these students were known as the “living dead” and represented all the teenagers who have died in drunk-driving accidents. Four of the participants, however, were hand-selected to be a part of an actual car accident scene that would be created on El Camino Real during an assembly later that day. At the scene, the “living dead” stood silently around the car accident while the rest of the student body sat in surrounding bleachers to watch the staged event. 

    While the Irvine Police Department set up the accident scene, Every 15 Minutes students got their makeup done in the PAC by professional makeup artists. From gashes and deep cuts to black eyes and burns, the “living dead” and the four members of the car accident scene boasted extremely realistic injuries that could have easily been mistaken for real ones. Once makeup was complete, the Every 15 Minutes group headed out to the street to get in their positions and prepare for the intense assembly that was to come. 

    At the beginning of fourth period, after waiting all day to find out what was going on, juniors and seniors were taken out to El Camino Real for the Every 15 Minutes assembly. Two battered cars were lying in front of them when they arrived, each one containing the car accident participants inside. One of the girls, however, was not in a car, but rather, was next to a car—lying dead in a pool of her own “blood.” Sirens rang and smoke from a fog machine was released for a realistic car-accident affect. Police on motorcycles, paramedics, firefighters, coroners, even a medical helicopter arrived at the scene to show students what really happens when there is an accident. A microphone was given to the police officer who conducted the sobriety test for the driver, played by junior Jessica Miller, so that students could also hear the standard procedures for such an accident involving alcohol. 

    As the car accident assembly came to an end, one driver was put on a stretcher and taken away by the ambulance, his passenger, who was also his girlfriend, was given a neck brace and watched in pain as her boyfriend was taken away. The other driver failed her sobriety test and was taken to jail, and her passenger was pronounced dead at the scene and was taken away in a hearse. Between the Every 15 Minutes participants and the students in the bleachers, enough tears were cried to fill an ocean. AP Government and World History teacher Mr. Bowman, who was the one teacher chosen to be involved in this program, commented on the intensity of the whole car accident scene. “It was very emotional and realistic even though it was staged. It was hard for me to see students in that position,” he expressed. 

    Unfortunately, the emotional rollercoaster did not end here for Beckman students. Every 15 Minutes participants spent the entire day after the accident scene going through real events that follow such a tragedy. First, the group took a trip to the police station to visit Jessica Miller, the student who was arrested at the scene, as she sat in the jail cell (she stayed for two hours). Next, participants visited City Hall to hear a real judge read Miller’s arraignment and then went to a mortuary in Newport Beach to become even more up close and personal with death, the worst consequence of drinking and driving. Finally, Every 15 Minutes participants made their way to La Quinta Inn, the hotel they would be staying at overnight to intensify the impact of being dead.
The next morning, April 30, after an emotional day of tragedy and a night of deep reflection, the final step of the program commenced back at Beckman. At the beginning of third period, juniors and seniors were released for another assembly. This assembly, however, was the funeral for the “living dead” and the four members involved in the car accident. Family members of the Every 15 Minutes participants sat in the middle of the gym while a casket was set up in front of them. To start the assembly, participants walked past the casket and each placed a rose inside, as if they were attending their own funerals. A video was then played of the entire Every 15 Minutes program, which included footage from the car accident scene, the jail, the hospital where one driver was pronounced dead, and interviews from some of the Every 15 Minutes students. Several students, along with a guest speaker from the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), gave emotionally-charged speeches about their personal experiences as well as the impact Every 15 Minutes had on them. Junior Tayla Tingstad, a close friend to many of the Every 15 Minutes participants, had tears streaming down her face throughout the assembly. “I rarely ever cry, but this assembly was very emotional for me. It was really hard for me to see my close friends in that position or even think about the possibility of it being real,” she explained.

    As the final assembly came to a finish, students involved in Every 15 Minutes were reunited with family and friends. Students came up to each other with tears in their eyes, explaining how they never want this experience to be real and recognizing how much of an impact the program had on them. Every 15 Minutes participant, senior Allison Kaprielian described the immense influence the program had on her, commenting, “Every 15 Minutes was an incredible experience. I really enjoyed working with a wonderful group of people to communicate a very important message to our peers. I’ve taken so much from this experience and I hope it impacted the student body in the same way.” It is without a doubt that the message of the Every 15 Minutes program hit home for many students at Beckman High School.