Bullard High School students participated in Shattered Dreams, a high school-based program designed to promote awareness of the dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Students portrayed victims in a crash scenario in which two people “died” as a result of a drunk driver. (Banner Staff Photo by Don Treul The sirens from a dozen or so emergency vehicles ripped the attention of Bullard High School students away from a beautiful spring day they may otherwise have been enjoying Monday, May 3.

Just north of the high school complex, two vehicles appeared to have collided in the middle of the intersection of Panther Crossing and the roadway behind the high school that leads to the agriculture complex. Four Bullard High School students were in each vehicle.

As real as it appeared, the scene was part of a mock crash, part of the Shattered Dreams program. Shattered Dreams is designed to promote responsible decision making by high school juniors and seniors regarding drinking and driving by showing them how irresponsibility can shatter or end all dreams.

In the scenario, the crash begins the program. During the course of the first day, the “Grim Reaper” will pull a student out of class to signify the frequency, usually every 15 minutes, that people die in alcohol related crashes.

The program can include mock funerals, discourses, special speakers and more. Often, parents and school personnel are involved.

At Monday’s “crash,” the Bullard Volunteer Fire Department, the Bullard Police Department, the Department of Public Safety and East Texas Medical Center also “responded” to the scene.

Two previously wrecked vehicles were staged in a crash scene at the intersection. Students took arranged positions in each of the vehicles. BHS seniors and juniors were dismissed from class to observe the scene.

In the scenario, the driver of one of the vehicles, portrayed by Josiah Rosenburg, struck a second vehicle. All eight of the students were “injured,” including from slight lacerations to fatal injuries. The driver portrayed by Rosenburg was drinking alcohol when the crash occurred. His front-seat passenger, portrayed by R.J. Horton, was killed during the crash. Two passengers in the back seat, portrayed by Cailee Morris and Nikki Coleman, received serious, but nonlife-threatening injuries.

In the vehicle “struck” by the drunk driver, all four occupants were injured, including one who was taken from the scene by an ETMC air ambulance and “dies” after arrival at the hospital. The driver was portrayed by Heather Berryhill; the frontseat passenger was portrayed by Emmy Long, and the back-seat passengers were portrayed by Lori Farrow and Kelsey Moses.

The Grim Reaper was portrayed by Taurean Washington with SCCADA of Tyler.

Parents and faculty organized the event, including Donna Jeffus, Amy McKeethan, Melissa Vining, Laurissa Ridgley, Amanda Goode, BHS Principal Scott Franks and BHS Resource Officer, Sgt. John Walker.

“I think it worked. If you save one life it’s worth it,” Jeffus said. “Some of the kids took it seriously, some didn’t. Some were upset and had to go home.”

Jeffus said a “memorial” service was planned for Tuesday, May 4, for the two students who “died” in the crash.

Department of Public Safety Trooper Mike Bortz performed a field sobriety test on the character portrayed by Rosenburg. The driver failed the test and was “arrested” by Bortz. According to the trooper, the driver admitted that he was intoxicated, there were two “open containers of alcohol” staged in the vehicle and there were other indicators that the driver was impaired. Bortz said a drunk driver would have been transported to a hospital to be checked out for injures and to obtain a blood alcohol test, and later transported to the Cherokee County Jail in Rusk.

“He would be could be charged with intoxicated assault and intoxicated manslaughter,” Bortz said.

Trooper Steven Crosby assisted Bortz in the “investigation.”


(Shattered Dream Photos on Pages 5-6 Banner Staff Photos by Don Treul
Students portrayed victims with injuries in a crash during a Shattered Dreams program Monday, May 3. Other BHS students watched the scenario as Bullard and other emergency personnel responded.