Many Benefit From The Experiences Of A Few
I am a Washington State Patrol trooper. I work most weekends anyway, but in April, May and June, I have some company. High school students ride along with me in something called the “high school journalism ride-along program.” This is one of the favorite things I do because I am able to talk to a high school student one-on-one, in a nonconfrontational manner.
This is the fourth year we have had the program. A half-dozen troopers and about 15 students participate. Here’s how it works: High school students in journalism classes ride with troopers to see what we do. We have the rides during the spring to target the proms, graduation and drinking parties. We don’t like to see kids get tickets because of the high cost of insurance already. Or see them have their driver’s license suspended or revoked because of alcohol-related offenses or too many tickets. Above all, we don’t want to see young people lose their lives because they drink and drive.
After the students ride, they write an article in their school newspaper about the ride. Hopefully, they are able to educate their peers from their experience.
The one ride-along that sticks out for me was with a foreign exchange student from Denmark. I arrested a drunk that night and booked him into jail. Afterward, the student said, “What a horrible hell it must be, locked up behind bars.” At the end of the ride, another student from her school, who rode with another trooper, made the same comment as my student. They said, “I thought of state troopers as mean people who like to give tickets, but all the troopers were really nice.”
Last year we had a trooper get into a scuffle with a drunken driver and the student used the car radio to call for assistance. We had someone criticize us for putting students in a potentially dangerous situation. My answer to that is this: Our job is potentially dangerous day or night. I feel the risk of having students ride is worth the benefit. They learn by someone else’s mistakes. They also pass this information along, one-on-one and through their school newspaper articles, to their peers.
If we are able to save one student’s life from an experience that would haunt them the rest of their life, then the program is worthwhile.
MEMO: Your Turn is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a Your Turn column for consideration, contact Rebecca Nappi at 459-5496 or Doug Floyd at 459-5466 or write Your Turn, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210-1615.