High School’S Drinking-Awareness Tactic Backfires Mangled Car Belongs To Student’S Father Who Wasn’T Drunk

A drug-awareness program at Sandpoint High School ended up being a bust.

Drug counselors wanted to strike fear into students with a graphic display of what happens when people drink and drive. A wrecked car was towed to the school and left at the entrance.

When Kathy Parks’ daughter stepped off the school bus, the first thing she noticed was the train-mangled 1989 Ford Tempo. It was her dad’s.

Tom Parks wasn’t killed in the crash, and he wasn’t drunk. Now, he and his wife are fuming that their demolished car was used as a drunken-driving prop.

“The first thing my daughter said was ‘Oh my God, that’s my dad’s car.’ She called and told me to go to the front of the school. She was pretty much in tears,” Kathy Parks said.

School officials told Parks they had gotten the car from a wrecking yard and had been unable to locate the owner.

Parks finds that difficult to believe. They still own the car, have the registration and never gave permission for it to be towed to the school. The car still has its license plates, which don’t expire until September, Parks said. She went to school and removed the plates herself.

“Granted, the car is a total disaster. They were trying to scare students, but one of the students is our 15-year-old daughter,” Parks said. “It was the car that brought her to Idaho. It was very upsetting. Kids were asking her how drunk her dad was.”

School district officials admit they made a mistake. A formal written apology is being sent to the family and the car was towed from the school, said drug education coordinator Don Medrano Tennison.

The high school counselor, Tito Tiberi, didn’t fully check details about the car before it was brought in, Tennison said. The concept is good, he added, the district just brought in the wrong car.

“It was not our intent to cause any harm,” he said. “It appears to look dishonest to put a car out there that looks pretty smashed up and imply it was from drinking and driving. This was not a drunk driving accident.”

Kathy Parks said all kinds of rumors were circulating about their car and what kind of gruesome accident it was in.

But Tom Parks wasn’t drinking when the accident occurred last November. He was cited by police for driving too fast for conditions. He apparently fell asleep and drove his car across a foggy intersection and onto the railroad tracks east of Sandpoint.

The car became stuck. Parks got out before a train arrived and crushed the car. “We were hoping we had finally gotten the accident out of our minds,” Kathy Parks said. “Here it shows up in front of our daughter’s high school.”