Photo Gallery Liberty student volunteers zip a fellow classmate into a body bag as part of the Shattered Dreams dramatization.

Liberty High School was the site of the annual Shattered Dreams program this week, just in time for prom. This is Liberty’s first year to have a senior class and the event was scheduled to be held just days before the school’s first senior prom and mere weeks before graduation ceremonies.

Each spring the Frisco Police Department and Frisco Fire Department present Shattered Dreams, a program designed to bring home the realities of possible results of driving while drinking alcohol or using drugs. School Resource Officer Chad Springer of Centennial High School was assisting with the effort this year. This was his third Shattered Dreams program. He commented that if even one person who experiences Shattered Dreams chooses not to drink and drive – “it is worth it.” The goal of the program is to prevent reckless behavior and accidents

The two-dayevent began on Wednesday morning as Frisco police and firefighters worked to arrange the staged but very realistic crash scene. Prior to going out to view the crash scene, students participate in an assembly where they are told of an accident involving fellow students and see a video that demonstrates what leads up to the accident.  Student volunteers represent the victims of the crash. Throughout the day, students are called out of class to represent the many people who die each day as the result of accidents involving drunk drivers. The Grim Reaper team – comprised of police, teachers and students -- visited classrooms to announce the “death” of selected volunteer students. The volunteers, referred to as the “living dead,” were then placed in body bags and wheeled away on a gurney right before their classmates’ eyes.

The second day is highlighted with a realistic memorial service for crash victims and the living dead. These students stay at school the first night to further demonstrate the separation from family and friends. The crash site is displayed throughout the event for students to see. This year’s crash site was staged on Rolater Road outside of Liberty.

First day insight . . .

The Reapers picked up Danielle Matise out of class. She stood beside Pioneer Middle School Resource officer Tony Rike as he read a eulogy written by her own mother. Beside her stood another officer garbed in a Grim Reaper costume. Students who are selected to be living dead are not told of their selection, though their parents know and help arrange work schedules and participate in the letter writing and the video. After the letter was read – Danielle was escorted to a gurney and zipped into a body bag. She was then wheeled to a room where she was made up to resemble a corpse.

As she was being made up to look dead, Matise kept saying she needed to have someone call her parents and remind them that she was supposed to go home from school with someone else. She was worried that they hadn’t told that person in advance. It was the first example of many more to come, of how even a dramatized death from a drunken driving accident leaves many plans ended and lives in confusion.

Each year Shattered Dreams is held at a different Frisco ISD high school with the hopes that students will experience the event sometime during their high school attendance.