Every year Sachem East’s SADD Club holds our annual Grim Reaper Day to raise awareness of teenage drunk and distracted driving and the fatalities that can result on a given day.
Throughout the day, students’ faces are painted white with red tear drops to represent all those who will fall victim to impaired and distracted driving.
Grim reapers go to various classrooms with friends who bring a card stating the death of a peer and a flower to be placed on the student’s desk. The students are then pulled from class and brought to the little theater where our volunteers paint their faces white with red tear drops.
Once painted, students are asked to refrain from talking and stay silent throughout the rest of the day. By the end of the day, the students represent nearly 50 people who will have fallen victim to impaired and distracted driving.
The health education classes will watch a video from MADD (Mother’s Against Drunk Driving) and discuss driving under the influence and distracted driving. Students also distribute nearly 500 stickers to students throughout the school to raise awareness about the massive amount of injuries as well as deaths that occur from impaired and distracted driving.
At the end of the day, all of the “deceased” gather in the main lobby and stand together while the rest of the students leave the building. This has a big impact on students and faculty by giving them a first-hand example of the reality of devastation caused by impaired and distracted driving.
-Words by student correspondents Joseph A. Manzella Jr. & Lauren A. Piazza
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