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Group raises bar for Gloucester High public safety display

By Ray Lamont
Staff writer

Rescue crews will be cutting apart a wrecked car outside Gloucester High School tomorrow morning.

But there'll be no need for alarm - and this story isn't clairvoyant when it comes to life-threatening car crashes.

The display will be part of an expanded public safety show intended to provide students and adults alike with a close-up look at the effects of drunken driving - and other forms of substance abuse and dangerous behavior.

The program, coordinated through Gloucester's Citizens for Public Safety, builds on the often-used props of showing students real-life films from drunken-driving accident scenes, or showcasing a wrecked car from a drunken-driving crash.

"When we spoke with (Gloucester High Principal) Joe Sullivan about this last year, he not only welcomed it, he told us to make it as realistic and graphic as possible," said Jamie O'Hara, a Citizens for Public Safety member who organized the display with Doug Shatford, Greg Smith and state Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester. "The idea is to be real, and show that this is a real problem."

The scope of this year's program - which includes representatives of the Gloucester Police and Fire departments, Massachusetts State Police, Essex County Sheriff's Department, and the Gloucester and Cape Cod stations of the U.S. Coast Guard - shows that school officials recognize the problem of teen drinking continues to grow.

Last year, only juniors and seniors took part in the indoor speaking program; this year, all four classes will participate, with freshmen and sophomores attending at 8:30, and juniors and seniors to follow at 9:30.

Guest speaker will be Cory Scanlon of Halifax, who lost two years of his life serving time after being involved in a drunken-driving accident that claimed the lives of two of his closest friends.

The outdoor portion of the program, which is open to the public, O'Hara noted, will feature a series of demonstrations beginning around 10:30. Those will include firefighters use of the Jaws of Life, a hydraulic tool, to show how they extricate a victim from a crashed car; the Essex County Sheriff's Department showcasing its dogs that sniff out drugs and chase down and apprehend criminals; and the Coast Guard demonstrating its inflatable rescue vehicle - with the Cape Cod Coast Guard station flying in and landing a rescue helicopter, weather permitting.

The Gloucester Police Department will display illicit drugs and firearms, and there will be two crashed cars displayed at the school's entrance.

"A lot of schools do something like this around prom time," O'Hara said, "but it's not prom night people need to worry about. Those nights, the kids are generally safe. There are a lot of things - like Breathalyzers (for admittance to the prom) - in place on those nights.

"We're worried about the nights after prom night, and other weekend nights," he said. "We know there are a lot of problems. We want to take this beyond prom night, and beyond just the usual display about drunken driving. We're hoping this can make a difference."

Ray Lamont can be reached at rlamont@gloucestertimes.com.