Now in its fourth year, the Shattered Lives of Tomball program is well established and likely delivers less of a shock factor to those having seen it more than once. However, the mangled vehicles and student actors sprawled across a high school parking lot still gives most of its onlookers an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of their stomachs.

Pictured, Tomball fire fighters and EMTs wheel a student actor on a stretcher out to an air ambulance during Concordia Lutheran’s April 21 presentation of the Shattered Lives program. Photo by Brian Walzel.

Alternating between local high schools, this year’s program was held at Concordia Lutheran High School April 21 and 22. At 10 a.m. parents of the students were brought out to the east side parking lot where three vehicles lay ensnarled in a mock crash scene.

Student actors lay bloodied and splayed out among the wreckage, while empty beer cans rattled along the ground in the breeze. Actors portraying Grim Reapers walked slowly along the scene, climbing atop vehicles and gazing at the victims.

It was all staged, of course, but the scene was eerily lifelike. The cars were heavily damaged. A female student could be heard whimpering for help. Shards of broken glass lay scattered across the concrete.

Concordia principal Joel Bode said once the students see the scene, the message hits home.

“First and foremost you hope they take it seriously, and I think when they get out and see the accident scene, it’s more real,” Bode said.

Alyce Reese watched as her daughter, junior Jo Reese, played a victim killed in the mock accident. Alyce Reese was requested by Tomball Police Officers to identify her daughter’s body, which lay atop a wrecked car and draped in a white sheet.

She was visibly shaken, as were a number of other parents standing close by.

“It was believable,” Reese said. “Parents need to know what their kids are doing and involved in.”

Just about every conceivable aspect of a real drunk driving accident played out before the parents and the 383 students of Concordia Lutheran. After the students were brought out from their classes, a recording of a 9-1-1 call was played over loud speakers.

Shortly after, several Tomball Police, Fire and Northwest EMS emergency response vehicles sped onto the scene with their sirens blaring. EMTs, police officers and fire fighters attended to the injured, while a PHI Air helicopter descended on a nearby soccer field.

A Tomball Police Officer administered a mock field sobriety test to Grace Mills, who portrayed the “drunk driver” in the scene. She was placed into handcuffs and into the back of a police car, where she would later be taken to the jail and before a judge, with her parents nearby.

Her father, Leon Mills, watched as his daughter was “arrested.” He called the experience “gut wrenching” and hoped the students would take as much away from the program as the parents.

The students declared dead at the scene were taken away in a Klein’s Funeral Home hearse, and to a nearby hotel where they would spend the night away from their parents.

In addition to the crash scene, several Concordia students portrayed “living dead,” representing a statistic that states a teenager is killed every 15 minutes in a drunk driving accident.

To simulate that number, a heartbeat and flatline played every 15 minutes on the school’s intercom. The “living dead” students are then taken away by Grim Reapers to a retreat that night, which is designed to further the message of the dangers of drinking and driving.

“It’s a program where you don’t really see the lives that are saved. But if we’re able to impact one kid to make a good decision and it saves a life, to me it’s worth it. There’s no way you can compare the cost of this to the value of one student.”

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed