LA PLATA, Md. (Feb. 25, 2009)—Juniors and seniors at Thomas Stone High School in Waldorf got a lesson in safe driving from Leon Harris, a local anchorman for ABC Channel 7 News, during an assembly held Tuesday, Feb. 17. Harris spoke to students about safe driving, accidents in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan area involving teenagers and the affects of alcohol on drivers.
Included in the assembly was an alcohol affect simulation, in which Ashlei Logan, a Stone junior and Charles County Association of Student Councils (CCASC) first vice president, demonstrated drunkenness and a field sobriety test through special goggles. Two Charles County Public Schools juvenile intervention officers, Sgt. Mike Vaughn and Pfc. Raymond Anderson, administered the "mock" tests to Logan and emphasized the criminal and legal affects of unsafe and drunk driving.
The assembly was coordinated with the kick off of the school's Safe Driving Task Force driver's pledge, in which students signed up to pledge to practice safe and responsible driving. The Student Government Association (SGA) in each Charles County Public high school has coordinated a student run Safe Driving Task Force to help promote safe and responsible driving.
Gary Winsett, a social studies teacher at Stone and the school's SGA advisor, invited Harris to the school to speak to students about safe driving.