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September 27, 2016
VA alumnae Ellen Hobbs Hirshman ’75 returned to VASJ with Paul Grieco for a moving and powerful presentation about the dangers of distracted driving. All VASJ students, faculty and staff attended the End Distracted Driving presentation to learn about the dangers of distracted driving. The presentation included scientific facts, data and options on how to drive and be driven safer.
End Distracted Driving was established to raise awareness and generate action against the epidemic of distracted driving. It was created by Joel Feldman and Dianne Anderson, the parents of Casey Feldman, who was killed by a distracted driver in 2009.
“We decided to do this presentation to open our student's eyes to the dangers of distracted driving,” VASJ Principal David Csank says. “Teenagers have an ‘it-won't-happen-to-me’ mentality and the best way to combat that mentality is to put the facts, videos, and questions right in their faces and force the students to confront them.”
Hirshman is a board member of two organizations, the Cleveland Academy of Trial Attorneys (CATA) the Ohio Association for Justice (OAJ), which have joined forces with the End Distracted Driving campaign with a goal of saving lives through raising awareness of the dangers of distracted driving.
“The students were receptive and will be taking home the Family Safe Driving Agreement to discuss with their families,” Hirshman says. The Family Safe Driving Agreement lists simple steps that can be taken to reduce distracted driving and make everyone safer on the road.
The interactive program was designed along with child psychologists from CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) with the goal of reaching out to students and capturing their attention. It has been presented in 45 states, to more than 300,000 students nationwide.
“I thought the presentation was excellent,” Principal David Csank says. “It brought in cold hard facts, emotionally charged videos, and soul-searching questions, which really forced our students to consider their actions.”
“I think the message was effective, and I hope and pray that our students received it,” Csank says. “I believe they did.”
