Skit on Drunk Driving Unsettles Students

Administrators at Redondo Union High School were tired of students responding apathetically to warnings about drugs and alcohol. So they decided to tell them a lie--for their own good.

Although no student has been arrested this year for drunk driving, administrators, with help from police and fire officials, brought all the seniors to a special assembly Wednesday and somberly informed them that two of their classmates had been in a drunk-driving accident the night before. One was dead. The other was seriously injured.

“I didn’t feel it was unethical at all to lie to the kids,” said Mike Vitalich, Redondo Beach police school resource officer, who arranged for a local towing company to bring a smashed Nissan to school to show students how their classmate had supposedly died.

At the end of the 10-minute skit, he told students the story wasn’t true.

“Kids today have seen a lot. They’ve heard a lot. Things have changed,” he said. “What are you going to do to get their attention?”

While the skit did capture students’ attention--it was the talk of the school Wednesday and Thursday--some parents and students said they are not happy that school officials would lie, even for a good cause.

“They got everyone all worked up. They’re supposed to be setting a good example, and lying is not a good example,” said Elise Anderson, a senior.

“I think it really stinks,” said parent Alec Iorio. “I like the school a great deal . . . but if the school is lying to kids, that’s absolutely reprehensible. The ends do not justify the means.”

That kind of reaction has caused officials to reconsider plans to repeat the skit next year, said Jerry Klein, public information officer for the Redondo Beach Unified School District.

But administrators still maintain that the message is important, and many students agreed.

“I know a lot of people who drink and drive,” said senior class Treasurer Carrie Aburto, who said she was momentarily terrified when administrators announced the death.

“I was like, ‘How could this have happened?’ ” she said. Then, she said, “I realized it was a joke.”

Many students realized it was a skit, she said, because they would have heard about the crash. And they knew police never would actually bring a dead student’s car to the school for everyone to see.

But other students said they were taken in and traumatized.

“I totally fell for it,” said senior Matt Garvey, who hadn’t been able to reach one of his friends the night before and thought the demolished car resembled his friend’s. “It scared me. I got really upset.”

Senior Jaime Wade said she appreciated what the administration was trying to do, but that the assembly was in questionable taste.

“I really didn’t think it was anything to joke about.”