Successful Safe Decisions Week

Safe Decisions Week began on Monday September 10th and ended on Friday September 14th and it has been in the planning process since summer.

Principal Dr. Paul Milcetich says, “Our main goal was to emphasize the importance of students making sound decisions in all facets of their lives (including driving), while doing so in a fun, positive, proactive, and interactive way.”

The school worked with Sean Devins of State Farm and Don Qualters of Balanced Asset Management to organize this safe and enjoyable week.

To inform the town on the activities of the week and to encourage all to participate, banners were posted outside of the school along with a wrecked car. The wrecked car intrigued many students and encouraged them to become involved with the activities during the week.

To start off the week, students were able to participate in the Simulated Impaired Driving Activity and try out the Distracted Driving Simulator in the gymnasium. These activities taught students how easily an accident can occur. Students were required to drive through cones that were set up while wearing goggles that have different effects on vision, the activities demonstrated that when driving, you must always pay attention.

The simulations were very effective in teaching students how to be safe while operating a vehicle. “The distracted driving simulator made me realize how important focusing on the road is and how dangerous it can be to drive under the influence,” says Junior Jake Marchese.

In the middle of the week, both the high school and middle school had a guest speaker, Katelin Franklin present “What do you consider lethal?” She asked students questions about what they consider dangerous and explained how the smallest things can cause accidents. She showed video clips of teenagers who were great kids that lost their lives because of simple distractions and mistakes.

According to Senior Julia Robinson, “From the videos, I learned how quickly an accident can occur and I have since been much more careful.”

Seeing these video clips helped students to understand the importance of practicing safe driving and the consequences that can occur if you do not practice safe driving.

On the last day of Safe Decisions week (Friday) the theme for the football game was a “GREY-OUT”, students dressed in all grey to support making safe decisions! The football team wore new grey uniforms and the cheerleaders wore grey shirts all provided by Devins and Qualters. Cheerleaders also threw t-shirts, passed out mini megaphones, and gave out bracelets with the logo from the week.

Overall, Safe Decisions Week was very effective in including all students and promoting safety.

Sponsor Sean Devins said, “Our goal was to allow the students to focus on an important and specific subject for an entire week. Making it fun, including the high school students, Drug Free Club, middle school students, and ending our week with an awesome football game for the entire city to showcase, a helicopter flyover, a Grey Out, new football uniforms, and announcements to support the message of Aurora students making safe decisions!”