For the past week or so Leesville Road High has been bombarding its students with videos, posters, and signs spouting the dangers of texting and driving. One may find them in the stairwells, on the walls and even stuck in the ground, dramatically leading up to the student parking lot.
“Teens text more so teens die more” written in all caps in a cracked up font is the type of propaganda being used to scare us into putting away our jittery fingers. Such a blatant message sends a certain wary kiss of death that students continue to ignore.
We are defiant teens with an undiagnosed addiction to social networking, and you can’t scare us. So there.
Some of the advertising has even become “teen-friendly.” Three of the four signs posted on the road following the parking lot conform to the ever-so-popular iTheme. “iCrashed, iWrecked, iTotaled.” Next it will be a song by Justin Beiber and Rebecca Black… then we would all be jammin’ out instead of texting.
Then came the documentaries. Stories of teens who were tragically ripped from the world at the fault of a little habit that many high schoolers have. Weeping families who will never forget the few words that murdered their children. True heart-jerkers that most of the school population has seen in drivers ed. and still shudders at the thought of.
At the sight of these things, our stomachs tie knots and we grimace through the nightmares that could be our reality. Yet, in the most miraculous of ways we sober ourselves, denying all possibilities because inwardly we fear for what will become of those we love should this be our fate.
It is a terrible thing to see anyone die, feel that excruciating pain of loss, feeling that maybe, just maybe, you could have stopped it. Especially, It is not fair to die something so foolish and little. So it must stop.
The tacky propaganda issued around the school will never stop texting while driving. It has to be a conscious decision but we should not have to be constantly reminded. Use some common sense.
So next time we get into our cars, let’s put down the phones, and for God’s sake, don’t pick it up again.
