Two weeks ago at Arrowhead High School, from October 16th to October 20th, students teamed up with Children’s Hospital, State Farm, Aurora, & Operation Click to promote safe driving habits for teenagers in hopes of reducing teen fatalities or injuries via motor vehicle accidents. The students leading the charge are AHS senior Vienna Weiland and AHS junior Maria Francis.

According to Francis, Arrowhead had announcements all week during lunch or over the speakers to remind students to drive without being impaired, using a phone, being a distraction to others, and to make sure everyone in a motor vehicle uses their seat belts. In addition to that, posters were hung up at North and South Campus to inform students of the statistics behind the dangers of distracted driving.

Some staff at Arrowhead may believe that teens should be informed of this information like AHS Biology teacher Greg Bisbee. Bisbee says “As a group, yes, [teen drivers have the potential to be more of a danger on the road than adult drivers].”  But, Bisbee also believes that it shouldn’t be just up to Arrowhead to inform teens of these dangers.

“I think there’s a lot of individuals responsible for [warning teen drivers about the dangers of distracted driving]. Their parents should certainly be talking to them about that. I would hope that, being high school students, they are already aware of it, and the fact that they are inexperienced drivers, and there’s something to be said about experience for anybody. You could start out as a good driver as a high schooler but you get better as you get older, hopefully. Having driven more, you have more experience to draw from and generally you become better at anticipating things” added Bisbee.

On Tuesday, October 17, students at North Campus had the chance to sign pledges during lunch to not be a distracted driver or to not distract a driver as a passenger. On Wednesday, October 18, AHS staff and supervisors had a seat belt check to count the number of cars that used seat belts.

On Thursday, October 19, South Campus students got to sign the same pledge North Campus students signed. Students who didn’t have a parking pass also had the opportunity to vow to drive safely with zero distractions by signing a contract.

Arrowhead’s partnership with Operation Click is all year long and has lasted three years now. Students can volunteer for these activities to earn points that go towards the chance to win a Toyota car in April 2018. Some of the safe driving habits that Operation Click promotes are: using seat belts, not using phones while driving, and driving sober. Operation Click believes that if you are not a safe driver, you’re a danger to both yourself and everyone around you.

According to www.operationclick.com, each school that partners with Operation Click has to set up a student committee to man the Operation Click program in the school. Committees encourage students to sign contracts, create events to promote safe driving in the school, and reward students who do follow the Operation Click safe driving rules.

Weiland, who volunteers for Operation Click, said she chose to volunteer for Operation Click because she agrees with its motto “buckle up and phones down.”

Weiland says, “It is hard to convince a teen driver to be safe. We think we are invincible. But we are not. Safe driving is a serious topic and has been an issue. We want everyone at Arrowhead and in our community to be as safe as they can.