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The GDL and Good Education will Save Teenagers October 28, 2008 Hello Sandy Spavone and the NOYS organization: Our Shelton High School and Oakland Bay Junior High have been doing some exciting events the past month. We did a community and school seatbelt check on Monday, October 27th. We surveyed 500 cars in the town of Shelton and 94 % of the people were wearing their seatbelts. We surveyed over 200 cars leaving the Shelton High School parking lot and 96% of the students and parents were wearing their seatbelts. Our Shelton High School SADD club students started a SADD chapter at North Mason High School in Belfair (Mason county). We helped them put on their several school and community seatbelt checks and we helped them sponsor on a presentation in their driver ed class on parent night in the middle of October. The North Mason High School students talked about the graduated drivers’ license law in the state of Washington. Plus, they talked about the importance of wearing the seatbelt and not drinking and driving. Violating either one of these items would lead to the dismissal of their Graduated Drivers’ License. Plus, we did a presentation at our local Kiwanis meeting in downtown Shelton and talked about the importance of wearing the seatbelt and the seven major points of our GDL. Plus, we handed out red ribbon to put on the car antennas. We also handed out red ribbon at our Homecoming game on October 11th. Plus, we did a seatbelt check that night and the results were great. We have had over 30 students from our Shelton High School and Oakland Bay Junior High SADD clubs talk about the importance of wearing seatbelts, not using alcohol and not disobeying the GDL. Finally, we participated in a health fair at Shelton High School and had a booth and did a demonstration with the fatal vision glasses and shared information on seatbelt usage. Plus, we passed out 250 contracts for life at this health fair and had a drawing for several t-shirts that had a “drug-free” message on them. Next month we will be going into the 9th grade health classes at Shelton High and do a presentation on the adverse effects of drinking alcohol at an early age.
The Shelton High School and Junior High School SADD clubs look forward to sponsoring the “Little Stars” program and several bicycle rodeos again this fall. We will be presenting the “Little Stars” program to three elementary schools in late September and October. The “Little Stars” program is very successful because it allows for cross peer teaching and student empowerment. We give out approximately thirty bicycle helmets to each school we attend to students who can’t afford a helmet. In our thirty-five minute presentation in each first grade class, we give them many tips on bicycle, pedestrian, and occupant safety. Plus, the first graders have a lot of fun watching the Mr. Melon head and Mr. Egg demonstrations. On October 3rd and 4th we will be inviting elementary students from each of the nine schools we present at to a bicycle rodeo at Oysterfest in Shelton, Washington. At this rodeo, the students will practice the rules of road, see a short video presentation and answer a ten question survey with the help of our SADD club students. We will also inspect youngster’s bicycles with the help of the Shelton police department.
September 30 Update:
On Tuesday, September 30th, our SADD club hosted a parent night for the parents and their students that are in the Shelton High School Traffic Safety Education program. We had approximately sixty people in attendance at our two hour parent night. Eight students from our SADD club made a thirty minute presentation on seatbelt usage, the GDL and distracted driving. On Friday, September 26th our students did a school and community seatbelt check and the results were great!!! 96 % of our students were wearing their seatbelts as they were leaving the high school parking lot after school and 88% of our community were wearing their seatbelts when they were entering and leaving the Wal-Mart Parking Lot. On parent night, the students gave the results of these seatbelt checks and then sent them to the local radio station, KMAS 1030 am. Plus, we did five sixty second PSA's on the radio station earlier last week and they are being heard daily on the radio station. Plus, we posted the results of the seatbelt checks on our school announcements in the morning. On parent night we also took the participants out into the teachers' In the classroom after the golf cart demonstration, one of the SADD club students performed an activity with a deck of cards. The first time the student counted the cards and the second time they had to take the deck of cards and put them into the four suites- diamonds, hearts, spades and clubs. It took only a minute to count the number of cards, but it took approximately three minutes to put the cards into the four groups. This demonstrated how much harder it is to concentrate on your driving when you are trying to multi-task. Plus, we had one student try the fatal vision glasses while driving the golf cart after they drove the golf cart without the fatal vision glasses. Their ability dropped again by 25%. Finally, the students did a demonstration in the classroom with four chairs and four students. The students were talking loud, on their cell phones and texting, and looking at each other. The driver was having a very hard time concentrating on their driving. This is why in the state of Washington the students with a GDL can NOT have other passengers in the car their age that are not related. When you add each additional person that first six months, your chances of a collision goes up quickly. Plus, if they are ticketed for an alcohol violation they lose their license until 18. |
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