Troubled Teens Resources

A graphic display of the grim results from teenage drinking was demonstrated by a new teen crisis intervention program developed by SADD and being deployed throughout it’s many chapters.

“According to SADD statistics, every 32 minutes of every day, a life is lost as a result of an impaired-driving crash. Juan Diego junior Niki Sanich acted as the Grim Reaper, entering classrooms every 32 minutes and pulling a student out, painting their face white and dressing them in black.
At the end of the day the victims were lined up side by side, marked by gravestones crafted by the students.
“There is so much attention given to school shootings, and yet more kids are killed by drunk driving each year — this gives kids a sense of the volume of incidents that there are,” said Molly Dumas, director of development at Juan Diego.
Petrone said the demonstration is much more powerful than faculty members, school leaders or even parents talking to students about drinking and driving.
“This empowers kids to reach out to their own peers, and that has a powerful effect,” Petrone said. “They expect parents or leaders to say this, but they are not expecting it from a student — it’s all about empowering students.”
(Source)

Originally SADD stood for Students Against Drunk Driving but has evolved into the present day Students Against Destructive Decisions, a more encompassing definition of this student groups that have developed over time to educate teenagers about the ultimate consequences of foolish decisions and destructive activities.

Parents who would like to see the formation of a SADD chapter in their schools can check on their website for instructions.