A Sobering Reminder News-Sun
A Sobering Reminder
By CHRISTOPHER TUFFLEY
christopher.tuffley@newssun.com
LAKE PLACID -- A gruesome photograph of a mangled automobile, wrapped around a tree, projected onto the screen at the front of the library at Lake Placid High School.
Highlands County Sheriff's Office Deputy Ross Porter, who is assigned to the school, stood sternly in front of the screen.
He faced a polite audience of teenagers who looked a little bored, although they greeted him warmly.
"Graduation is coming up," Porter said. "It's a big step for everyone, and there will be plenty of celebrations. I had fun when I graduated, I want you to have fun, too."
But more than that, Porter said, he wanted his students to be safe.
There can be split seconds in life, he warned them, where everything changes forever. Automobile crashes are just such moments.
And don't think, Porter told the teenagers, that the only damage is physical. Anyone under 21 years of age is judged to be under the influence with a .02 percent alcohol reading.