AHS Ghost Out teaches real-life lesson in impaired, distracted driving

April 26, 2019 | 3:35 am

Updated April 27, 2019 | 8:59 am

Students from Apollo High School and emergency responders take place in Ghost Out day to bring awareness to impaired and distracted driving. | Photo by Melody Wallace

Sirens blared, the jaws of life were engaged and an emergency AirVac helicopter transported a freshman student from the Apollo High School softball field parking lot Thursday morning. However, this emergency was meticulously planned in advance.

Owensboro Police Department Sargeant Adam Johnston and Daviess County Sheriff’s Deputy Gary Klee visited each classroom one by one until all 14 participants were gathered and their message had been firmly delivered.

“Can I have your attention please?” Johnston asked as he entered each classroom. “Every 30 minutes in the United States someone is killed in an alcohol-related crash. Today I need (name of student) to grab your things and come with me.”

While each student’s parent or guardian had given permission in advance of the event, the students each left their classes unsure of what the rest of the day’s events held.

Students in 9th through 12th grades were selected and represented diverse backgrounds, including ethnicity and involvement in extracurricular activities such as drama, band or sports. The intention was to use a variety of students in presenting a powerful message that could be spread throughout the entire school.

Photo by Dariush Shafa

“This is intended to let kids know the consequences or dangers of distracted driving — impaired driving,” said AHS Youth Services Center Coordinator Heather McCarty.

Photo by Charles Mahlinger

Johnston addressed the students assembled in the conference room as some dressed in prom attire and trauma make-up to bring the simulated injuries to life.

“We chose you all because we want you to be our voice,” Johnston said. “What you learn and see and experience this morning, I want you to talk about. Snapchat it, Instagram it — we’ve got to get this message out.”

Johnston went on to explain that the students would be experiencing a staged crash, and while they were aware of the minor details of their roles, they were uncertain of the outcome.

Several students played victims of the crash, while Aidan Smith played the part of an intoxicated driver who was eventually given a sobriety test before being handcuffed and arrested.

Crystal Goetz is part of the trauma team at Owensboro Health Regional Hospital and has portrayed the part of the mother of a seriously injured student for the last five years.

“My main job will be Kyler’s mom — we always pronounce one [dead],” Goetz said. “I think it’s good because it’s not funny anymore. They see how real it actually is.”

The scenario Thursday morning was real, from the mangled blue car upended in the parking lot, to the lights and sirens of first responders, to the Air Vac helicopter landing and taking off again with freshman Kyler Rutter onboard clinging to his life.

The sober reality of the situation continued as all of the participating students that served as onlookers were transported by bus to the hospital where the story continued to unfold. While the other students were treated for their injuries, Kyler was pronounced dead, and Goetz simulated a mother’s grief while classmates looked on with genuine concern in their eyes.

In years past, the students would come back to AHS and take place in a school-wide assembly in order to debrief and discuss the impact of the day’s events. AHS Principal Rick Lasley said, while the Apollo staff has been talking about Ghost Out since the beginning of the school year, after the three separate instances that took place at the high school following spring break, he and the staff felt led to do things slightly different this year.

“In light of recent events, we reached a point where I had to make an executive decision where I felt that our students and our staff had experienced some traumatic things,” Lasley said. “Even though we firmly believe in the message and we are still sending the message out, the thought of the Grim Reaper walking around our halls and our kids laying in body bags with sheets over them — with the fragile state I felt like we were all in, I felt like it would be overload and that’s the reason why we made the decision we made.”

Ghost Out is an annual event created by the Kentucky Office of Highway Safety, that takes place at each City and County high school on a four-year rotation. Owensboro Health partnered with the Owensboro Police Department, Daviess County Sheriff’s Office, Daviess County Fire Department, AirEvac 92 and Yellow Ambulance for this event.

“Tomorrow we will have a video put together about how Apollo and Apollo’s family has been affected in year’s past by, not just impaired driving, but distracted driving,” Lasley said. “We will send the exact same message that would have been sent through Ghost Out anyway, and feel like it will be far less traumatizing for our kids.”

Lasley said rather than having the students gather in the auditorium for an assembly where other distractions could take place, they will be in a small group setting on Friday in their fourth-period classes when the video is shown.

“It’s going to be each teacher with their class that they’ve had since the beginning of the year,” Lasley said. “And we feel like kids will be a lot more attentive to that than they would for 1,500 kids to be in the gym.”

April 26, 2019 | 3:35 am

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