At Pasco High School we have a program called Every Fifteen Minutes that was started by the California Highway patrol in 1995. This activity is designed to teach students the importance of drinking and driving and having that impression of a person passing away every fifteen minutes. Ms. Schneider has been running this program since 2006, but it was being performed before she even came to work at Pasco High. 

This activity is designed for twenty-four seniors to participate in only. For students to participate in this program, Ms. Schneider starts advertising this activity at the beginning of the school year to hand out contracts that must be signed by the students and parents. Once applications are turned in, Ms. Scheider does check attendance and grades to see if they are qualifying to participate. 

 What a traditional activity that students participate in is being pulled out of classrooms by paramedics and the grim reaper. Once being pulled out of class they get to dress up as a ghost and walk around the school all day “dead.” There is even an overnight expedition, but as Ms. Schneider says, “What happens in the overnight part when the dead kids don’t go home? That’s a secret.” For the students who don’t get to participate they also get the opportunity to watch the crash scene presented by police officers and seniors in the student parking lot. 

Ever since COVID happened it has changed how schools teach and their activities. It changed Every Fifteen Minutes by not having the crash scene, not pulling students out of classrooms, and not having the Pasco PD come to school to do presentations in classrooms. Instead, they showed a video in every classroom to hopefully have them understand the dangers of drinking and driving and still have students dress up as ghosts and that was the extent of it.  

 Here’s a hopeful message from Ms. Schneider of what we can accomplish, “Next year, we will be incorporating more distracted driving along with the drinking because it has its own alarmingly high statistics about fatalities behind the wheel. It’s crazy how students can be told about the dangers of an activity, and then still do it because they feel like it will never happen to them.” Many students can feel different emotions during this time, but it gives staff and students hope that we can lower the risk of deaths here at Pasco from drinking and driving.