Moritz Life

Every 15 minutes, someone in the U.S. is killed in an alcohol-related collision. It's a staggering number of casualties and the effects are felt throughout the community for years to come. Lemoore High School presented the program on campus April 7th & 8th. On Thursday, the 11th & 12th grade students were sent to the stadium and when they got there, they saw two vehicles which had apparently had a head on collision on the field in front of the stands. The presentation started with a frantic 911 call and when the blankets were moved we saw a young girl laying beside her vehicle and in the other vehicle 2 girls screaming and crying for help. Their driver walking about dazed. Shortly thereafter police, ambulance and fire crews arrived attending to the victims and cutting the two girls out of the second car by removing the doors and the roof. The ambulance took the two girls away to the hospital in Hanford while the coroner's office zipped up the girl in a body bag who'd been thrown from her vehicle and transferred her to the morgue. The police then interviewed the driver and gave him several sobriety tests. He was then placed under arrest for felony drunk driving. This whole scene was filmed by a videographer. During the morning, several students had been taken out of their class by the grim reaper, representing people who are killed every day. It's very powerful, but then it's not even close to being over. The students who are "dead" are taken to a local hotel and have an evening retreat with activities and discussions about what it all means. I was fortunate to be a chaperone for those activities and it was heart wrenching to hear some of those kids share. Many of them who'slives had been touched in negative ways by alcohol including one student whose cousin was killed by a drunk driver when he was only 17. He had been a phenomenal baseball player, who was already pitching fastballs between 90-100 mph. He had a bright future as a major league ball player and was already being recruited by many colleges.

On Friday we arrived back to school early and they prepared for the funeral services that were to be held. It ended up that two of the girls had died. The funerals were held in a gymnasium and the same juniors and seniors attended the funeral also. We had the funeral home bring the caskets, flowers, pictures of the students and their parents spoke and shared slide presentations of these two young girls' lives. It was a tear jerker all around. Many students brushed tears away. It was too real. Then the trial was held and a Kings County Judge, prosecutor and defense attorney spoke. Young Aaron at 17 years of age was sentenced to a minimum 38 years to life for killing two girls and paralyzing the otherone. The crowd cheered. Then a mom who lost her daughter to a drunk driver a couple of years ago spoke. The irony of the this was that her daughter had been killed by one of our former students who is now incarcerated for his crime. This mom has spent the last 15 years working for the Tulare County Office of Education as an educational promoter working to keep kids from drinking. Her daughter attended a college on the Coast and was coming home for the weekend. Just the night before, she had got up twice to pick up friends who were needing a ride because they'd been drinking. She really believed in what her mom taught and tried to live it out. About an hour from home, she pulled over to call her mom and say that she was a little worried about driving because she was tired. Within a half hour of that call she was hit by the drunk. Every bone in her body was broken except her right hand and all her major organs except her heart had been crushed. The car who hit her had been driving about 95 mph.

I felt like I had gone through the wringer by the end of all of this, but it sure put a face on "drunk driving". It made me realize how important it is to take the time now to say "I love you", not to wait until it's too late. So go ahead, hug the person closest to you, and thank God for them.

I love you!