High school graduation is right around the corner for the students of SHS and members of the student Spartan Council have worked to bring a drunk driving simulation to Strathmore High School this month.

Spartan Council along with teachers Jeanette Greep and Sharline Visser will be bringing a mock simulation to the school that will work with community partners, the Strathmore Fire Department, EMS, and police to expose students to a scenario involving drunk driving.

The Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) simulation will take place in front of the school in the parking lot on Wednesday, May 11 at 11:30 a.m. and will simulate a vehicle collision where the fire department will need to rescue individuals using the ‘jaws of life’.

Visser explained the goal of the simulation, “It's something that we're trying to bring back,” she said. “We just wanted to come, and try to get it going again and get some community involvement with that as well.”

“It essentially gives them the in's and outs of what takes place at a collision scene with the different community members involved,” she said speaking of the RCMP who will be conducting a mock roadside sobriety test, and EMS who will be working with any injured actors during the mock event.

“The fire department is actually going to be using the jaws of life on one or two of the vehicle doors.

We have five of our Grade 12 students who are our actors/vehicle passengers and so they're going to be, essentially acting out what they feel would happen in a collision and then responding to the different first responders as they work with them,” she explained.

Visser explained that the school has not hosted a similar event in a number of years.

“We picked five Grade 12 students on purpose because we want to make a bit of an impact before graduation, which is in a couple of weeks,” she said.

She explained that organizers have tried to assure the community that this will only be a mock simulation, and nobody will be injured as a result of the event.

Students from the school's cosmetology program will also be doing special effect makeup on the five student actors working in the simulation.

The simulation will be geared primarily towards Grade 12 SHS students. Visser explained they are hoping to make the simulation an annual event in the future.