Cops and Teachers Hoax Drunk Driving Deaths to Scare Teens

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Majikthise at 10:00 AM on June 17, 2008.

Last month, police officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School to inform teens that several of their classmates had been killed in drunk driving crashes over the weekend. Not surprisingly, the students were devastated by the news.

Several hours later, the adults revealed that it was all a hoax. Nobody died. There was no accident. Trusted authority figures cooked up the whole story to teach the kids a lesson.

Unfortunately, the lesson they learn is that adults have to lie to convince them that drinking and driving is dangerous. So, this cruel stunt precisely backfired. The take home message became: Don't trust adults who warn you about drinking and driving.

Great public health outreach, folks.

[HT: Ellen of The D'Alliance]

Tagged as: health, alcohol, teen, drink, drive

Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.