FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 5, 2014

Contact: Deidra Powell, Chief Communications Officer, (714) 558-5555 Office, (714) 673-4995 Mobile

News Advisory: Santa Ana High School Students to Learn the Dangers of Drinking and Driving and Impact on Family and Friends with Every 15 Minutes Program

For Immediate Release – On Wednesday, May 7 and Thursday, May 8, the Santa Ana Unified School District Police Department will host, with the support of the California Highway Patrol and a dozen other agencies and sponsors, an event designed to provide a realistic depiction of the consequences of drinking and driving through a mock vehicle accident, memorial service, and an assembly. Geared towards high school juniors and seniors, this 2-day event challenges them to think about drinking, driving, personal safety, the responsibility of making mature decisions and the impact their decisions have on family, friends, and many others.

The program will bring together a broad coalition of interested local agencies with the goal of reducing alcohol related incidents among youth. The program is dramatic and emotional and purposely so; it is designed to create an awareness among students that they are not invincible. “Every year, we needlessly lose too many of our young people to these senseless tragedies. This program is intended to underscore the point that alcohol related fatalities are 100% preventable,” Police Chief Hector Rodriguez, Ed.D. said.

The program will help open emotional doors and will address a problem most teens do not know exists. They will experience firsthand how their actions affect the lives of so many other people. Come and join the Santa Ana Unified School Police Department and students of Santa Ana High School, located at 520 W. Walnut Street, Santa Ana, May 7 at 10:30 a.m. for the mock collision. The program will conclude the following day with a mock memorial service and assembly at 10:00 a.m. in the Bill Medley Auditorium also located at Santa Ana High School. Media interested in attending may contact Deidra Powell, Chief Communications Officer, at (714) 558-5555 or (714) 673-4995 for additional information.

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