4-20-2009 MVHS DUI Accident Assembly

Don't look at this if you have a timid tummy! We had a mock DUI accident assembly at Mission High on Monday. It was pretty intense to watch how easily an accident can take place. There were twelve students involved and Holly was one of them.

The guy standing on the right was driving home from the after-prom party and had drank a few beers. He was only 2 blocks from his home with four of them in the car.

They pre-recorded the conversation saying he was fine to drive and then you hear the crash. Next, they lifted off the two tarps of the cars and revealed the "accident". The girl through the windshield was the boy's date - dead. She was our ASB President and Homecoming Queen this year.

Holly and her date's car was hit. They were not drinking - just the innocent victims of a drunk driver. They were both thrown from the car. He was dead on the scene and she was in and out of consciousness with a head wound and lacerations to the body.

The by-standers were all drama kids too and they did a fantastic job acting in shock and in rage and all the above!

They actually had KTLA and Mission Viejo reporters there. They also had the paramedics, OC Sheriff, firemen, and Mission Viejo Hospital accident volunteers participate in the program. They all surrounded Holly since she was still alive and treated her first. They gave her an "IV" and prepped her to be taken away.

This is where it got hard for me to handle it. It looked sooooo real and I felt my heart sinking and tears welling up in my eyes.

They all did such a fantastic job. They did everything like it was real: calling the hospital, taking vitals, using the terminology like "We have two dead on arrival." Noel skipped morning classes because Jeff and I wanted her to see this and how important it is to not drink. She handled it pretty well. Though at this point of the program we were hugging each other!

They put Holly in the ambulance and took her away!

Then the firefighters started working on the other victim in the car. His legs were smashed in the backseat - paralyzed and stuck. They had to use the jaws of life to get him out. They actually cut open the top of the car like a can and took off the door to get him out. During this time his mom arrived at the scene. That got pretty crazy too. She was screaming and crying. The hospital volunteers were there to help her and the other bystanders.

The O'Conner Mortuary took the 2 dead kids away in body bags.

There were a couple thousand students and faculty that came to watch this non-mandatory assembly. It was an amazing thing to see the kids so quiet and intently watching. After the program was over, the OC Sheriff Chaplain explained how this was a real accident that took place in Orange County a couple of years ago. He talked about how important it is to not drink, not race, and not use our cell phones.

Holly and Noel Medina were interviewed afterward by the television station.

All of the students participating in this signed an agreement that they would not drink. That was easy for Holly to do! I can't imagine having to go through this in real life! I am so thankful Holly was able to be in a program like this. It is done every two years at MVHS.

Check out the Documentary on You Tube by MVHS