On April 2, 2009, over seven hundred kids across two class periods filed into Mercer Hall at Palisades Charter High School, unsure of what awaited them. Their teachers had told them that the assembly would cover the issue of safe driving; at 7:50 in the morning, many students walked in with tired, uninterested expression, expecting another assembly of talking heads. As they took their seats, though, the lights dimmed and the assembly began with a video clip, not of newscasters, parents or cops, but instead of kids actually partaking in a street race. “Let’s do this,” shouts one of the kids in the video excitedly. The lead car spins its tires and takes off. The cameraman takes chase and they begin racing, everyone hooting and hollering the whole way, at least for a few moments. Suddenly, the fun little exhibition of speed becomes a nightmare as the lead car flips and the driver is launched out the window, coming to rest motionless on the ground in front of the vehicle. As the clip ends, the screams of the person’s friends can be heard.

A pin drop could have been heard in the silence that followed the clip. The lights came back on. “Clutched in, engine revving, eyes focused, every muscle tensed, every fiber ready to go,” I began, setting the stage for the rest of the assembly with a keynote called The False Allure of Speed. “This isn’t about street racing… It’s about driving fast, about driving reckless, and about driving under the influence, three things so many of us have done, and three things that so many of us have taken for granted…” Over the next thirty minutes, I and members of the local community each took turns giving our personal perspective on the need for safe driving. Sam Rahbarpour, a tenth grade student at Pali High, spoke about a bad accident he’d recently been involved in, and he called for his fellow classmates to not take driving for granted. LAPD Motor Officer Chris Smythe and CHP Public Information Officer Travis Ruiz then explained the legal repercussions and consequences of speeding. Defense attorneys Steve Cron and Shep Kopp, both whom have argued numerous driving cases, further emphasized how there aren’t always easy escapes from the legal consequences. LAPD Officer Chris Ragsdale, former senior lead of the Palisades, then came in with a perspective many didn’t expect from him, not one further emphasizing what had already been said, but instead one talking about the non-legal, but life-effecting consequences of dangerous driving, lamenting how many fatal road related accidents he’d seen over the years, and calling on people to wisen up and make a change, if not for the legal consequences, then for themselves. School psychologist Bella McGowan wrapped up the panel discussion by covering the emotional effects of these road related accidents.

In the following minutes, the assembly was opened up to questions and comments. Some students vehemently attacked the message of the panel: “I’ve had five accidents, and I’ll probably still speed again,” stated one student, causing an outcry from other students and a vehement, yet measured, response from myself and personal friend of both Travis and Nick, Rafael Marino, who had joined us at the panel table for the Q&A portion of the assembly. Other students voiced their firm support of the message of the assembly. Some told personal stories about friends, family and colleagues that had been lost in road related accidents. One student even assailed the ex-speeders on the panel, asking them how they could have gone about doing what they did for as long as they did. There were also more general questions that were asked of the panel: “Can you get a ticket when you’re driving with the flow of traffic?”, “Can an LAPD officer give you a ticket on the freeway?”, “Does an officer have to show you the radar gun if you ask?”, and of course “How do you plan to enforce safer driving?” Our local law enforcement officers fielded the legal question with help from the defense attorneys, while Steve and I, both active members of Safe Westside, responded concerning the question of what comes next with an explanation of the Pledge, the Speed Watch citizen radar program, and other initiatives that the coalition is currently pursuing.

As the assembly period drew to a close, the Q&A ended and attention fell back upon the front of the room where numerous kids, from both Pali High and the local community, had lined up. On screen, the words of the Pledge appeared. One voice began: “In order to prevent the senseless deaths of more members of our community…” And then another spoke, and another, and another, until the entire Pledge had been read. In the aftermath of this assembly, more than two hundred students took the Pledge to Save Lives.

This assembly, organized by Susan Strick and I, in collaboration with Pali High administrator Monica Iannessa, is the first of many to come. On Wednesday April 29, 2009 at 7:00 PM in Mercer Hall at Pali High, a follow-up assembly will be occurring, geared for parents and other adults in our local community, and, in the future, we’re looking to reach out to other local public and private schools as well.