OSAID, students to promote safe, sober driving. Siobhan Byrne reports.
From car wrecks and “mock-tails” to casino nights and testimonials, a group of students at Lisgar Collegiate Institute want to send a message to their classmates — don’t drive drunk.
Four months ago, Grade 11 student Lisa Jog organized a chapter of Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving (OSAID) at Lisgar Collegiate.
With high school graduation less than three months away, Jog and about 25 other students are trying to warn teens about the dangers of drinking and driving.
“This is the year all my friends are starting to drive,” says Jog. “I’ve never experienced (drunk driving) but I want to keep it that way.”
The students have organized several events to tell their classmates about drinking and driving.
OSAID students have invited members of the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group Rehabilitation Centre to speak at their school at the end of this month.
“Many of these people were at the stage that our high school students are,” says Lisgar Collegiate teacher Barrie Laughton.
Laughton says the speakers are the same age as the high school students. They’re all people who’ve been in alcohol-related driving accidents.
OSAID students are also arranging a casino night at Lisgar Collegiate for more than 350 students in two weeks – complete with “mock-tails.” Mock-tails are juice drinks made up to look like alcoholic beverages.
Jog also plans to ask an insurance company to donate a wrecked car to the school – to remind students of the dangers of drunk driving.
“We thought that it would be a good idea,” says OSAID member and Lisgar Collegiate student Erika Weisz, “especially considering summer and (graduation) are coming up and you know that’s when most of the drinking happens.”
Jog says the biggest issue high school seniors face is finding a safe ride home.
“(Students) go out and they drink. Then they don’t want to call their parents or they don’t have a safe ride home,” says Jog.
Graduating students at Lisgar Collegiate say students will be drinking at graduation but most of them will take a cab home or get a ride with a sober friend.
“Personally I don’t drink but I have a big van so I can drive people,” says Graham Lindfield, graduating Lisgar Collegiate student.
Canadian-based organization Extreme Attitudes Against Drinking and Driving will donate 25 cents for each student at Lisgar Collegiate’s graduation.
Jog says that way they have a quarter to call a cab.
“We’re not about to go out there and be like ‘don’t drink’ because it’s impossible,” says Jog.
But she says OSAID hopes to at least promote “responsible drinking.”
Sonia Jog, Lisa’s sister who is on the graduating committee, says the donated quarters will remind students not to drink and drive.
“I think it . . . encourages us not to make the dumb mistake (of drinking and driving),” says Sonia Jog.
This is also the time of year police officers visit local schools like Lisgar Collegiate “to make sure they are aware of the dangers of (drinking and driving) and how to plan a safer prom night,” says Louise Logue, an employee at the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police youth office.
Regional public health nurse Clare Purdue says the regional government is also concerned about a safe prom night.
“Every year we go to (student graduation) committees and say ‘please think about the use of alcohol when planning your (graduation),’ ” says Purdue. “And every year they don’t do an awful lot about it because they don’t know me and I don’t know them.”
Consequently, the regional health department has started to put together a booklet called “Party Smart” to help local graduation committees plan their prom and consider the risks of drinking and driving.
The project started late last fall and is expected to take two years to complete.