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Cabrillo High School will be hosting the “Every 15 Minutes” program. This program was developed to prevent teen drinking and driving, the Every 15 Minutes program is one of several teen driving programs the California Highway Patrol (CHP) is involved in with the goal of reducing crashes, and fatalities among teenagers. However, this program helps the students see the impact of the tragedy from a different perspective, through the eyes of their family and friends.
- The two-day program focuses on high school juniors and seniors, challenging them to think about drinking, driving, personal safety, and the responsibility of making mature decisions which could impact family, friends, and others.
- Every 15 Minutes program dramatically presents, through realistic demonstrations, the effects a fatality crash caused by an impaired driver has on a school, the families and a community.
- Volunteer students are taken from their classrooms every 15 minutes to represent the “victims” of a multiple fatal DUI collision. The student body witnesses a wrecked vehicle, brought to the campus, and watch as emergency crews demonstrate efforts to extricate the “victims” from the vehicle. The collision scene will be held on April 2, 2025, approximately 11:30 a.m.
- At the end of the first day, the volunteering living-dead, are taken to an overnight retreat where they hear first-hand from people who have been involved in or are affected by an incident involving alcohol. The students write letters to their loved ones expressing thoughts they would convey if they had not been “killed” on that particular day.
- On day two, a student body assembly is held. The assembly will be held on April 3, 2025 at the Cabrillo High School Auditorium at 11:00 a.m.
- The Every 15 Minutes program is presented after months of planning and meetings involving school officials, law enforcement, firefighters, community hospitals, emergency medical responders, chaplains, counselors, judiciary, community groups, local businesses and parents. Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
