Breaking News: Administration Hosts Drunk Driving Assembly

The administration held an optional assembly in the auditorium during seminar today providing information about driving under the influence. The assembly was open to all freshmen, sophomores and juniors.

The purpose of the assembly was to help students understand the dangers of drunk driving and the preventative measures they can take to avoid it. Impaired drivers could not only hurt themselves and their passengers, but also innocent people in other vehicles, according to detective Lacey Daly, a school resource officer at East.

According to Daly, the assembly did not include seniors due to limited auditorium size.

The assembly included guest speaker and drunk driving accident survivor, Jeff Kudlacik. After Kudlacik was hit by a drunk driver in Overland Park on his 23rd birthday, he had to relearn how to eat, drink, and talk. Kudlacik hopes that by telling his story and showing videos of the accident that were taken from his dash camera, he can help stop this from happening all together.

Lori Marshall, a representative from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, also spoke. According to their website, MADD is an organization that was created to end drunk driving and prevent underage drinking. Marshall said that the amount of assemblies she does tends to increase around Prom and graduation time. She travels around the state to speak about the dangers of driving under the influence.

“Nobody ever thinks it will happen to them, but hopefully, after hearing Jeff’s story they will realize how dangerous impaired driving is” Marshall said. “It is a 100% preventable crime. In the blink of an eye your entire life can change by someone else’s poor choice to drive impaired.”

Daly said that with summer break approaching quickly, it’s a good time to remind students of the dangers of driving under the influence, but there is never a bad time to have these assemblies.

“Our students are at an age where they are just learning to drive or have not been driving for very long,” Daly said. “Adding alcohol or drugs into the mix with driving is always a recipe for disaster, but when you add those with undeveloped driving skills the risk is even greater.”