Senior Melodey Temple was chosen to be a part of the program. Even though she was not physically hurt, the emotional strain is real. Her family was nervous for the emotional toll they were about to go through.

“It hurt me knowing they were hurting,” Temple said.

The students chosen are not allowed to tell anyone except their parents, siblings, and friends that are involved in this program in order for the impact to feel real.

“My sister and my girlfriend didn’t know. My girlfriend had called my sister and talked to her the night I didn’t come home and they were just crying together. They couldn’t even practice because it was so hard for them to focus on anything,” Temple said.

The sheriff and a chaplain came to the homes of the ‘victims’ to inform their families of their ‘loss’. Temple wanted people to understand that in real life when these incidents do happen, we do not always get to say goodbye.

“It was really hard to listen to because what if it did really happen? But if it was real, you wouldn’t get to say goodbye,” Temple said.

After the ‘car crash’ on the blacktop, the students in the program were taken to jail for booking and they were put into isolation rooms.

“It was completely silent there is no noise…. one officer slammed a jail door and it echoed, the inmates, they hear that every single day,” Temple said.

Even though no one actually died, it does not mean it has not happened before to other people. Every 15 minutes someone dies from an alcohol-related accident. If we are not careful this could happen to us.

“It’s not a joke. If everyone takes it as a joke, they may get in a car with a drunk driver and going to put their lives in someone else’s hands,” Temple said.