LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – On April 3, Every 15 Minutes invited speakers to the Los Alamitos High School campus and announced the death of two students.
For visitors, this would have come as an unpleasant, unbelievable surprise, but LAHS students knew there was nothing to fear, for they’d anticipated the biennial arrival of the momentous Every 15 Minutes program. In total, 28 students “died” as part of the educational project; this community-wide initiative was funded by The Youth Center and involved support by local police departments, Lions International and more. The program lasted for two days, drawing attention to the dangers of drunk driving by pulling student volunteers to become “the living dead”.
After each death was announced to the school, the “grim reaper” and a police officer visited each of the “killed” students in their classrooms, and while the officer read their eulogy, a black placemat, a picture of the student and a rose were placed on their desk. The student then became one of the “living dead”, an apparition-like character haunting the periphery of Every 15 Minutes events. They donned skeletal face paint and prepared for a total disconnection from other students, friends and family to simulate their passing.
Students found it emotionally painful to watch their friends vanish from class, left with the makeshift memorial as the only relic of their passing.
“It hit me incredibly hard when she left and her picture was set up,” senior Addie Schumacher, a friend of “living dead” student Sarah Roudabush, said. “To have the thought of her being ‘dead’ was really tough to think about, (as was) not speaking (to) or seeing her for at least 24 hours.”
However, the volunteers’ experience was not so universally troubling. They planned their Every 15 Minutes journeys months in advance, attending meetings to bond with the other volunteer students, assemble their fake gravestones and write mock eulogies. During their hiatus from their external relationships, some found community with the other “living dead”.
“It was like a pause button on the chaos of high school, and in that silence, I felt…free,” Era Berani, the sole sophomore participant in the program, said. “We laughed, we cried, we sat in silence together and we opened up in ways that felt raw and real. And none of it was shared online or posted for the world to see. It was just a real human connection.”
During lunch on April 3, students observed a mock car crash staged in front of the LAHS gym. The collision involved two cars, each with two students. One car had a “drunk driver”, senior Jordan Taylor, and his friend, Wesley Trevino. The other had senior Madison Shafer driving and junior Colby Ledterman in the passenger seat, both “unconscious”. The Youth Center volunteers had covered them in blood and prosthetic makeup, rendering the emotional scene immensely realistic. Taking on such a dramatic role helped students in the accident connect to the program perhaps even more intensely than spectators could.
“Seeing my best friend Colby pretend to be dead and not being able to wake her up was terrifying and eye-opening to the immense impacts of drunk driving,” Shafer said. “I am so grateful I chose to take part in this experience and it moved me in ways I never expected.”
Clustered around the scene, hundreds of LAHS students watched as a firetruck and ambulance drove into the campus, and firefighters pulled the three injured students from the cars. An officer conducted a field sobriety test on Taylor and arrested him for driving under the influence. Both girls were sent to the hospital, where Shafer later “died” from her wounds. Volunteer coroners came to the scene and pronounced Trevino dead on arrival. The volunteers, having seen the aftermath of such accidents firsthand, intimately understood the message the Every 15 Minutes program is sending.
“The program for me is quite an insightful approach to educating our younger generations about responsibility and accountability,” Forest Lawn licensed funeral director and embalmer Alan Kim said. Kim volunteered as one of the coroners for Every 15 Minutes.
“One small decision, not only can greatly affect a person’s life, but also can greatly harm others. In my opinion, (the) Every 15 Minutes program helps to portray such real-life instances that may not be familiar to all, and thus, provides a deeper meaning towards what can occur in everyday life,” Kim said.
Between the bloody makeup, the on-scene first responders and the jaws of life provided by firefighters, LAHS students were shocked by how realistic the scene felt, despite knowing it was staged.
“I feel like it affected me a lot,” sophomore Rachel Chavez said. “I felt like I was going to cry because I lost someone to a car crash. I think it’s really important, and I feel like some of the students don’t see how important it is.”
Despite not being the target audience for the program, LAHS teachers also feel an immense connection to Every 15 Minutes, even if they have seen it three or more times.
“This is my third time (seeing Every 15 Minutes), and I feel like every time it gets me,” ASL teacher Mrs. Bennett said. “I get really frustrated with my freshmen who don’t take it seriously. For the seniors, I had kids crying throughout my classes so I think it really does impact them and hopefully, it makes them think before they make a choice they can’t change.”
Some students laughed it off, some students cried and some students seemed to feel nothing at all. Regardless, day one of LAHS’ experience with the Every 15 Minutes program concluded with the sound of sirens and the promise of more reflection to come. Anxiously awaiting to reunite with their friends, students went to bed that night full of anticipation and all the more wary of taking the wheel after a party. Lives can be saved, and day one was merely the beginning.
