Robyn Burton said she had never heard her classmates be as quiet as they were during the viewing of “Smashed: A Toxic Tale of Teens and Alcohol.” Perhaps they were trying to process the images shown on the big screen in the auditorium at West Potomac. Television crews captured students crying, covering their faces, gasping and just looking stunned. A few students fainted and some others left during the viewing.
“I was kind of shocked. I didn’t think it would be that bloody. It really opened my eyes,” Burton said. “When you’re having a good time, you don’t think about reality.”
“It was really graphic,” said Jana DeCoster. “I was kind of surprised that the boy who had gone through that accident still went back to drinking. I had to shut my eyes through part of it. It really made an impact.”
Both Burton and DeCoster shared their views with Channel 4’s newscaster Tracee Wilkins and Channel 7’s Katharine Jackson for evening news broadcasts. They were part of a larger group of 10th graders selected for interviews with both print and television media.
Also selected was Tiara Francis, who said, “It was really an eye opener. I cried. I pictured myself in their situation — the mother by the hospital bed visiting her son. I never want to put myself in that situation.”
Traci Jennings said, “The images will stay with me forever.”
Those are the images of a boy crying out in pain; images of a brain being drained; images of a cracked skull; and images of parents grappling with their own pain.
“You never think it could happen to you. It was a hard reality shock. When Warren came out, everybody realized it wasn’t a fake. I’ll think twice before getting in a car,” said Claudia Siles, another 10th grader.
Siles was referring to Warren McKeldin, one of the teenagers featured in the film. He explained to the students that he suffered traumatic brain injury as a result of a car accident incurred after riding in a car with a drunk driver.
“You can’t tell there’s anything wrong with me, but something isn’t right inside me,” said Warren McKeldin, who spoke of becoming aggressive, compulsive and suicidal after the accident. “It changed the chemicals in my brain — I used to play football, lacrosse.”
Warren McKeldin said that he couldn’t recognize his parents after the accident and didn’t know where he was. As he looked out into the audience of 10th graders, he pointed to the back of the audience and said, “I used to be that guy, way in the back, sleeping and talking with my friends. I wish to this day, somebody had said, ‘Listen up please.’ If you think you need to drink to have fun, you’re wrong.”
Warren McKeldin’s mother, Robyn, said, “It’s very hard. You take something different away from the film every time you see it. I’ve gone through anger and loss — I basically feel like I lost my son on the side of the road. He was in his body but his mind was gone. He was like a box of chocolates; we never knew what we were going to get from day to day. He’s doing much better now.”
IN AN INTERVIEW, Warren McKeldin said that he never drinks now. He also said that he sometimes wished he had some physical injuries so that people would know that there was something wrong with him. To look at him, he looks fine. He’s a handsome 22-year-old man, yet with a brain injury it’s hard for him to process information. He has trouble reading and holding a job. He has overcome his aggressiveness, and goes around speaking to youth groups.
“I know that there must be some reason why God saved my life,” Warren McKeldin said. “Whatever you have to do to stop drinking, do it. Do what you have to do.”
Becki Brady, who organized the viewing, asked Warren McKeldin to come because she thought it would be more effective to have somebody come speak. “I dreamt about having him come,” Brady said.
She wasn’t dreaming, but it was late at night when she first saw the HBO film during the four-day student holiday at the end of January.
“I thought, this needs to be shown,” Brady said.
She found out that HBO wasn’t going to be showing the film on television any longer, but that they had sold the rights to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). She spoke to a representative from NHTSA who told Brady that they were looking for a school to test run it.
“I think I have a school for you,” Brady said. She contacted Rima Vesilind, principal at West Potomac, and asked if she would be willing to screen it. She did and three weeks later they were scheduled for a screening of the video at West Potomac.
“My heroes are Rima Vesilind, Nancy Kreloff and Diane Brody who took it on faith that this was a good thing and took all the risks associated with taking it on. It was very gutsy. We’ve created the model,” Brady said.
Vesilind said, “The film was a very strong, realistic view of what actually happens to a person when they are involved in an accident caused by alcohol. It follows several teenagers as they are brought into an emergency room and go through the medical procedures and recuperation that follows. Because of the rash of automobile accidents involving young people in the Washington, D.C. area and because of our closeness to Route 1 and the Beltway, we felt this was an opportunity to raise the awareness of our students to the dangers of getting into a car with a driver who has been drinking. We love all of our young people at West Potomac and don’t ever want them to have to go through the heartbreak of such experiences.”
DIANE BRODY, President of West Potomac’s PTSA, said, “This was an important step in addressing this issue in our community. PTSAs across the country strive to assist parents in developing the skills they need to protect their children, as stated in the PTA mission. Mount Vernon PTSA and West Potomac PTSA have co-sponsored this evening event to try to reach as many parents as possible in our area. We need to raise awareness that teenage drinking is not a rite of passage, but that it does indeed dramatically change, or end, thousands of teens (and their families) lives every year... and every one of them thought ‘that won't happen to me.’”
Richard Wong, executive director, American School Counselor Association, is developing lesson plans to help students work through some of the issues presented in the film. Students at West Potomac were given a questionnaire to complete. On it were questions such as: Do you think drinking and driving is dangerous? In the past month, have you ridden in a motor vehicle with a driver who has been drinking? Did the documentary affect your attitude toward drinking? As a result of viewing the documentary are you more or less likely to ride with a friend who has been drinking?
Those results will be tabulated by National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS), a coalition of youth-serving organizations striving for health and safety among youth; they have been promoting the film among all of its various memberships (i.e. SADD, MADD).
THE FILM WAS ALSO shown that evening at Bryant Alternative School. After the film was shown, a panel of experts representing law enforcement, juvenile justice, the medical and legislative communities, as well as organizations active in programs to combat teen drinking and/or driving, facilitated a discussion on the issues raised by the film. An additional panel composed of teens and parents who have personal experience and involvement with these issues was there as well.
“The film did not have the same impact on parents who are all too aware of the real world, but the discussion was excellent. Both the networks covered this and West Potomac received numerous calls from schools across the country, so clearly this is something where a convergence of thinking and acting is happening,” said Brady, who is hoping that students will take something away that will make them more thoughtful and think about drinking and driving.
“The film is very effective, I think, at relaying the message: these were real people, in real life situations that are horrifying ... but that is reality. We hope to show this film to the juniors and seniors at West Potomac this spring, and to continue the dialogue that this film has begun with students, school staff and parents. One life changed is success,” Brody said.