Your classmates are dead.....ok, they aren't

[Joborule]

I don't know. The message they bring is strong, but I think it hits to close to heart. I know this will actually make them think, but it can shock the person too much. It just seems to far to hoax a death. You don't play around with people emotions like that.

If they can't get the message that you don't drink and drive. That's they're own fault and deserve the consequences (unfortunately if they hit an innocent they have to suffer as well). I think that you have to go with a more conservative message then that. Don't actually make people believe a student is dead.

[chris lindberg]

Is there anyone who has lost a loved one to drinking and driving not agree with this tactic?

[Swarly]

This is a horrible tactic, whats the next step? actually kidnap and beat one of these students and say it was a DD accident that put him in the hospital? that would really show these kids and make them think seeing someone in the hospital.

also what happens here when some kid learns their best friend died, I don't think it would be a terrible stretch to find some kid in high school go commit suicide after learning their friends are gone. not saying it would happen all the time but is that what its going to take for these MADD people to realize this is a dumb idea. lots of damage being done to these kids even if it doesn't show physically.

[BuzzardsWife]

This is twisted and sick if you ask me. How would you feel if it was done to you? Imagine getting a knock on your door and being told your parents or wife were killed in a car by a drunk driver, then an hour later someone knocks again and says 'this was just a tool to make you aware of drinking and driving!'..nice tactic. I'm sure they can be creative enough to come up with something better. If I was a students parent, and they did that to my kid, I would sue MADD.

[flip]

Originally Posted by chris lindberg

Is there anyone who has lost a loved one to drinking and driving not agree with this tactic?

Well can't say I have but after reading some of the other responses in this thread imagine this:

They do the same scenario but tell you your sister just got raped and killed to make you think twice about letting her walk alone downtown.

Definitely no one would support that even though it has the same message. The end, learning a lesson, most definitely does not justify the means, pretending your friend is dead, in this case. (both my and the MADD example)

[FlamesAllTheWay]

If it sucks that bad even when you get a "just kidding" at the end of it, imagine how bad it'd be if it actually happened.

Gets the point across way better than "don't drink and drive" IMO. I'm all for it.

[Flames0910]

Originally Posted by BuzzardsWife

This is twisted and sick if you ask me. How would you feel if it was done to you? Imagine getting a knock on your door and being told your parents or wife were killed in a car by a drunk driver, then an hour later someone knocks again and says 'this was just a tool to make you aware of drinking and driving!'..nice tactic. I'm sure they can be creative enough to come up with something better. If I was a students parent, and they did that to my kid, I would sue MADD.

"excuse me you are being evicted" wtf is up with that commercial.

[RogerWilco]

Wow, MADD pulled off a stupid stunt in a single school that can never be used again because everyone knows about it by reading it on the internet.

Actualy, now when some terrible death happens for real the studens are going to be "like yeah right" as they wait for the punch line.

[MaDMaN_26]

I think of MADD a lot like I think of PETA, it doesnt matter that they are trying to convey a just message, they are so far over the line its hard for the average person to support them without feeling a bit stupid for being associated with such an extremist group. This proves the point... drinking and driving IS wrong. Manipulating people deepest emotions and causing them horrible stress and pain to make "your" point, is just as wrong if not more so... its really hard to stand behind something like that and say good job.

[FanIn80]

Yikes. This is crazy...

Is it just me, or has MADD become nothing more than the drinking/driving equivalent of PETA?

If anyone ever pulled something like that in a classroom with one of my kids in it, I'd have their heads.

(metaphorically speaking, of course, since I neither have kids nor am I a tribal headhunter)

[CaptainCrunch]

Honestly in real life its a crime to imitate a police office, make phony 9/11 calls, carry false id, mislead and fraud.

To me this is the same thing, its dishonest, its no better then what shock DJ's do. There are better ways to get the message across.

[J pold]

Originally Posted by moon

If it was a close friend or significant other wouldn't you have known about it before the cop came in and "told" people at school?

I think it is more likely whiney people who like to think that they are friends with more people than they are who are over dramatic that would be affected by this more than anyone.

The same people who cry and moan when someone they spent their entire life trying to ignore dies and it looks good to be sad about their "tragic" death.

They could have known sure but it just as likely that they didn’t know before hand from the tone of the article it seems that the cops and MADD really wanted a deep emotional effect on these kids and letting them think there best friend/GF/BF is dead seems to be the extent that these people are willing to go too

Referring to a person as “whiney” when they find out someone they know (friend or not) is dead is sick IMO, when a very close friend of mine died they where people he hardly knew that attended his funeral and grieved as hard as anyone, would you call those people whiney? Hell there are people who are emotionally distraught from the murders in Dalhousie last week who never even knew the family are they whiney or over dramatic?

There seems to be a reoccurring theme in this thread (I could way off here too) but it seems to me that people who have unexpectedly lost someone they loved or even knew (drunk driving or not) think this tactic is cruel probably because they know the initial shock and pain when you find out that person is dead, and the other side are people who may not have had to deal with such a tragic loss who might think that this is just a “tug on the heart string” or that it would just “suck” too find that out. What they don’t realize is that these people are deeply manipulating these kids’ emotions; they are reaching into some of these kids greatest fears and making them reality, I said it earlier in the thread but finding out someone you love is dead is the worst pain imaginable and no one should have to go through it needlessly

I know its been said a number of times in this thread but just imagine for a second a police offer coming to your door to tell you your wife, husband, child, sibling, friend, is dead because of a drunk driver than a hour later for them to return telling you it was all a hoax in order to teach you a lesson. What would your initial reaction be? Would you be able to recovery instantly with an epiphany to never drink and drive again? I doubt it…my bet is you would be angry, confused, hurt, resentful, and would have a difficult time trying to trust the police/the person again

[troutman]

I always thought MADD was an odd name. Are there really any mothers in favour of drunk driving?

[CaptainCrunch]

Things that could happen

MADD and the police pull this stunt, upset boyfriend or girlfriend goes to the school roof does a header.

Teacher sees this announcement, clutches chest, falls over dead.

Student who agreed to be the victim see's all of her friends dump her because of this prank.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by troutman

I always thought MADD was an odd name. Are there really any mothers in favour of drunk driving?

Of course not.

As I said back on page one, MADD is just a sham title for a puritan group that wants all consumption of alcohol banned. A more accurate name for their group would be Mothers Against Alcohol Period, but MAAP doesn't have the same ring to it as MADD does. :P

[Ford Prefect]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Of course not.

As I said back on page one, MADD is just a sham title for a puritan group that wants all consumption of alcohol banned. A more accurate name for their group would be Mothers Against Alcohol Period, but MAAP doesn't have the same ring to it as MADD does. :P

Just curious, and for the sake of clarification ... do you have a source for this, or is it an opinion statement?

[MaDMaN_26]

Originally Posted by J pold

I know its been said a number of times in this thread but just imagine for a second a police offer coming to your door to tell you your wife, husband, child, sibling, friend, is dead because of a drunk driver than a hour later for them to return telling you it was all a hoax in order to teach you a lesson. What would your initial reaction be? Would you be able to recovery instantly with an epiphany to never drink and drive again? I doubt it…my bet is you would be angry, confused, hurt, resentful, and would have a difficult time trying to trust the police/the person again

Couldn't agree more... the hardliners in this thread that are saying they support this method... I'd like to call your bluff, I'd like to do this to you, more so I'd really like to be there after that hour where you have just sat there believing your wife/child/Brother is dead, slap you on the back and say "Man up, its not real you sniveling wussy its teaching you a message for the greater good". Ofcourse that would make me no better than you and so I really wouldn't do it to anyone, but I'd really like you to understand the kind of emotional pain you are so gleefully in support of inflicting on others.

What blows me away is this wasn't targeted at offenders or anyone in specific, kids that are good kids and don't drink let alone drive do exist and yet they too were exposed to this as well... to say we have a emotionally detached or desensitized society and therefore we need to use these kinds of extreme emotional terrorism to make a point is THE stupidest thing I think I have heard some of the senior posters on this board ever say... to say that an approach like this is counter productive to fixing that issue is the understatement of the year. MADD and the police need to find another way. There is no justification to treat people (especially children) like this... to the supporters of this method maybe you are the problem, maybe your the ones that make our society so emotionally detached.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

Just curious, and for the sake of clarification ... do you have a source for this, or is it an opinion statement?

According to wikipedia (consider the source), the woman who founded MADD in 1980 resigned five years later because the organization as a whole had shifted its focus from fighting drunk driving to a more prohibitionist stance.

By 1985, many MADD leaders were calling for the criminalization of all driving after drinking any amount of alcoholic beverage. Ms. Lightner disagreed with this aim and said that police ought to be concentrating their resources on arresting drunk drivers, not those drivers who happen to have been drinking.

Lightner stated that MADD "has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned … I didn't start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving".[31]

[...]

Some critics claim that MADD has shifted in emphasis from preventing DUI deaths and injuries to preventing underage alcohol use and that this is undermining the organization's original goal because MADD's leadership has stated that it's more important to stop drinking than it is to stop drunk driving fatalities.

Emphasis added.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothers..._Drunk_Driving

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by MaDMaN_26

Couldn't agree more... the hardliners in this thread that are saying they support this method... I'd like to call your bluff, I'd like to do this to you, more so I'd really like to be there after that hour where you have just sat there believing your wife/child/Brother is dead, slap you on the back and say "Man up, its not real you sniveling wussy its teaching you a message for the greater good". Ofcourse that would make me no better than you and so I really wouldn't do it to anyone, but I'd really like you to understand the kind of emotional pain you are so gleefully in support of inflicting on others.

I'm a hardliner because until one sees their brother (or mother, sister, father etc etc etc) clinging to life on tubes with staples holding their head together (or insert other horrible circumstance here) they could not possibly understand the ultimate price of the ultimate selfish act of drunk driving.

As horrible as a prank like this is, it is nothing compared to the real thing.

[J pold]

Originally Posted by Traditional_Ale

I'm a hardliner because until one sees their brother (or mother, sister, father etc etc etc) clinging to life on tubes with staples holding their head together (or insert other horrible circumstance here) they could not possibly understand the ultimate price of the ultimate selfish act of drunk driving.

As horrible as a prank like this is, it is nothing compared to the real thing.

What do you base that on? That is a very broad statement do you seriously think that no one can comprehend the consequences of drunk driving until they are exposed to those consequences themselves?

My friends and I don’t drink and drive ever we didn’t need someone to pull a horrible prank to get the point across

Edit:Where do you draw the lines with these sorts of tactics? Should Doctors be allowed to tell patients who smoke or are over weight that they are going to die of cancer within a few weeks, than call them a couple of hours later and tell them they are going to be fine, in the hopes that these people will learn a lesson?