By MAGGIE MCMURRAY
Moapa Valley Progress
The students at Moapa Valley High School experienced a very harsh dose of reality last week. At least it was the reality that could be if they drink and drive.
Law enforcement agencies and many others worked cooperated on Thursday and Friday mornings to present an “Every 15 Minutes” to the MVHS student body. The event, part of a national program, is named for the approximate rate at which someone dies as a result of a drunk driver.
The presentation began when students were led from their classroom to the streetside north of the school. Here they viewed a realistic mock scene of a serious motor vehicle accident. Although it had all been carefully staged, the scene was very convincing. Smashed cars and debris littered the road, along with the body of MVHS student Raymond Marquez.
Thanks to a talented makeup artist, Marquez and several other students involved in the display, sported realistic-looking injuries including broken bones, severed arteries, cuts, abrasions, and even exposed brain tissue.
The demonstration began with students listening to an actual 911 call made by a Las Vegas student who had witnessed a real-life accident.
Moments later, police and emergency vehicles converged on the staged scene as students watched the drama unfold.
A supposed drunk driver was played by Chase Guesman. Students watched as police pulled an uninjured Guesman from his car and administered a sobriety test before “arresting” him and leading him from the scene.
A Mercy Air helicopter was called to the scene to transport the “driver” of the other vehicle, played by Kianna Paul. Paul was made to appear to have a significant wound to her neck as well as exposed bones in her arm. Emergency personnel used the Jaws of Life to remove the top of the car to extricate Paul. She was then transported by ambulance. Later it was announced to students that Paul had died in transit.
The Clark County Coroner arrived and examined Marquez who was lying on the road. Describing his injuries for the onlooking students, the Coroner pronouncing him “dead.”
Brian Rebman from Moapa Valley Mortuary arrived on scene loaded Marquez into a body bag and removed him from the scene in a hearse. The students sat stunned through all of this.
As students were excused back to class, a group of 28 students remained in the stands. They represented students killed according to statistics. Those students were transported to a local motel where they joined the students who played parts in the demonstration. All of their cellphones were taken away so that classmates couldn’t contact them.
These students joined with officers and their parents in an intense retreat that studied impaired driving and its consequences. Students participating in this activity were returned to the school the following morning for the second half of the presentation.
On Friday morning students gathered again for an assembly. Students viewed a video showing pictures of the staged crash of the previous day. The video went a step further and showed what happened to each of the students after they left the scene. It showed Marquez at the mortuary being taken from the storage locker so his mom could come identify his body. It showed the efforts of the emergency trauma doctors in trying to save Paul’s life and failing. And it showed trauma doctors explaining to Paul’s parents that she had passed.
The video also tracked Guesman being processed by the justice system, booked in jail, a courtroom trial and final sentencing of two 20-year terms in prison.
Local Metro Officer Nathan Bradford urged the audience, “Don’t drink; don’t text; don’t talk on the phone. If you’re driving, just drive.”
MVHS student, Jaci Holmes, was invited to read a letter she had written to her mother during the retreat the previous day. It was about what she would have said if she had died that day.
Marquez’s mother also read a letter she wrote to her son of her feelings if he had actually died that day. There were few dry eyes in the audience.
The two-day presentation had an impact on students.
“It was an amazing program,” said MVHS student body president Kasen Kolhoss. “I think in this community there’s a veil over a lot of our eyes and a lot of parents think that their kids aren’t involved, but in reality there’s a lot more than we see.”
Junior Makae Pulsipher added, “Not having those 28 students in class or being able to contact them really made the whole thing real. I realized that is what it would be like if they had really died.”
Jesse Robison, who was one of the actors, said, “This event really put a face to the tragedy. I hear stuff like this and just think of it as another news report of something sad that happened, but now I see it as more of someone dying.”
Dione Jackson, mother of Kianna Paul, said that even though she knew it wasn’t real, having to be told by the doctor that her daughter was dead was very difficult.
“It was harder than we expected,” she said. “ You anticipate going in there and they tell you the news and it’s actually very overwhelming and emotional –much more than you think. I hope my kids make the right choices so I’m never put in that situation for real.”
