Scared straight

This week, students and staff at Southwestern Community College bring awareness during Alcohol Awareness Week.

On Monday, Iowa State Troopers provided students with a computer-controlled drunk driving simulator to demonstrate the dangers of driving while under the influence of alcohol. On Tuesday, the message continued to spread at a SWCC volleyball game as students and staff passed out Lifesavers candies to raise alcohol awareness.

But, students were in for a real scare Thursday as law enforcement and emergency personnel responded to a mock episode of alcohol poisoning, unknown to students, at an on-campus tailgate event during the Alcohol Awareness Week Campus Crawl.

As students were playing games, eating appetizers, drinking root beer and visiting with one another, a commotion surrounding a nearby vehicle started to capture the crowds attention. Soon after, emergency lights lit the scene.

Students gathered around as emergency personnel attended to a student acting as a victim of alcohol poisoning. Once the attention of the crowd was captured, Paramedic Casey Larson from Greater Regional Medical Center spoke with students about the health concerns of consuming alcohol, how the body metabolizes different types and amounts of alcohol and warned students about how long it actually takes to become sober.

Larson also shared his experience of responding to a suspected OWI crash site where a victim crawled through the sunroof of the vehicle and rolled to a nearby house because she was unable to walk or crawl because of broken limbs.

Matt Carr, Creston Police officer, explained the legal repercussions of underage drinking and some of the consequence underage drinkers could face — suspension of driver’s license, fines, mandatory drunk driving courses and jail time.

“It was really exciting,” said Rachel Christensen, student ambassador. “Nobody really know what was going on.”

After the first scene, ambassadors lead students to two other locations on campus where mock alcohol-related incidents took place — a mock sexual assault during a party in the dorms and a drug bust during a dance at the student center.

Christensen said, at the dance scene, one student had fake drugs planted on them police used a drug sniffing dog to demonstrate how they can find that.

“It was really an eye opener to see it all acted out instead of just hearing a lecture,” Christensen said.

Christensen said it was important for the students to see the scenarios acted out and that people her age still have somethings to learn about the dangers of alcohol consumption.

“I don’t think students know the repercussions,” said Tracey Evans, SWCC student activities director. “So many things are acceptable to some kids and they don’t think they are doing any harm to themselves or to someone else.”