In a ‘Blink’
November 2, 2009 • By Alyse DiNapoli,
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Sharing Stories on the Dangers of Drinking
HARRISONBURG, Va. — Alcohol kills 6.5 times more youths than all other illicit drugs combined. About 1,400 college students die each year in alcohol-related causes, and 25 percent of college students say drinking has caused them to fall behind in class and receive lower grades, according to statistics presented Wednesday.
These statistics coupled with audience members’ personal encounters with drinking and driving painted a sobering picture at Wednesday’s “In the Blink of an Eye” speech on alcohol-related accidents. Hosted by Alpha Kappa Alpha and Sigma Gamma Rho sororities, the event in Taylor Hall brought the issue of alcohol accidents, especially drinking and driving, closer to home.
“It’s an issue that needs to be addressed,” said Telmyr Lee, president of Alpha Kappa Alpha. “We all have different alternatives to drinking and driving.”
Leslie Ney, a registered nurse at Rockingham Memorial Hospital for 30 years, shared grim stories she has witnessed within the young Harrisonburg demographic. She told a story in which a drunken young man accidentally fell down basement stairs and went head first into a cinderblock wall, killing him instantly. The graphic yet moving story was followed up with other accounts of drunken students’ signature behaviors in the emergency room.
“Sometimes they’re fighting tooth and nail when we’re just putting in the IV. It can be quite challenging. Sometimes I wish we had a camera and say, ‘Can you believe this is you?’ ” Ney said.
Adrienne Griggs and Rachel Lafferty, SafeRides’ risk management director and training and education director respectively, reiterated that their organization strives to offer an alternative to getting behind the wheel after drinking. The two addressed the basic nature of SafeRides, emphasizing that the members are nonjudgmental and look out for their passengers’ best interests.
“We neither encourage nor discourage drinking. We just encourage people to make smart choices. We don’t care if you’ve been drinking. We just don’t want you to drive,” Lafferty said.
Griggs further emphasized Lafferty’s points by highlighting specific passengers who hadn’t been drinking at all.
“We don’t assume you’ve been drinking. One girl was on a really bad date and just wanted a ride home,” Griggs said.
The end of the presentation shifted toward the audience as students talked about personal experiences.
Some spoke of relatives or friends killed in alcohol-related crashes. Others discussed the problem that many college students compare how much their friends have had to drink with themselves in order to determine who should drive, even though the driver should be completely sober.
Freshman Nandi Alexander was in a car accident with one of her good friends. The driver of the car that hit them was intoxicated, and although her friend had some relatively minor injuries, Alexander was in overall good condition. The driver and passenger in the other car were not so lucky. The driver was killed and the passenger paralyzed, most likely for life.
“It really affected me, and it was just this past summer, so I wanted to tell people about it,” Alexander said.
Shennean Tatem, historian of Sigma Gamma Rho and a junior interdisciplinary studies major, focused her story on her job as resident adviser in Eagle Hall.
“I see so many freshmen making poor choices. It’s something you don’t think about when you’re in the situation,” Tatem said, discussing the behavior of many students heavily under alcohol’s influence.
Instead of lecturing students on what to do and what not to do, “In the Blink of an Eye” allowed any student in the audience to stand up and discuss how they feel on the extremely pervasive issue of college drinking and the invincibility that is often associated with the mix of youth and alcohol consumption.
Contact Alyse DiNapoli at dinapoap@jmu.edu.
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