The Cupertino Courier
Education
Safe Rides program aims to reduce teen accidents
Erin Hussey
Every year there are tragic car accidents involving teenagers. Some involve alcohol, some involve sleep deprivation and some are simply accidents. But the truth is, many of those accidents could have been prevented.
A team of Monta Vista High School students, including lead organizers Hamish Ferguson, Kimberly Ang and Natasha Desai, hope to reduce accidents among their peers through a program called Safe-Rides.
"The goal of Safe-Rides is to educate and provide a confidential safe ride for any student who feels that they are in harm's way or in a situation where they cannot drive home," says Kristine Kirkendall, an executive with the Santa Clara County Council Learning for Life.
Learning for Life is a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of America. It offers seven programs designed to support schools and community-based organizations in their efforts to prepare youth to successfully handle the complexities of contemporary society and to enhance their self-confidence, motivation and self-esteem.
"That being said, some people interpret the Safe-Rides program as one that is pro-alcohol and encourages teenage drinking, but that is not the case," says Kirkendall.
That incorrect perception has proved to more powerful than the student promoters of Safe-Rides expected.
"We are running the program every Friday night," says Ferguson, a senior, who is one of the licensed Safe-Ride drivers.
"We do get calls, but because the school is not allowing us to use school resources to advertise, the call volume has significantly dropped off."
Last January, Ferguson and the rest of the Safe-Ride student volunteers were told that they could not post fliers, posters or any other form of advertising on school grounds.
"We started promoting it through the Inter-district Council, which is an association of all the ASB presidents and representatives from each leadership program at every school," says Ang, a senior and president of the Monta Vista ASB.
"We were pushing the program district-wide and there were at least 20 students at every school that were interested and ready to do their volunteer training, but then the district said, 'Stop, we need to review all the liability issues.' Then they eventually said 'no."
Ferguson says the argument not to sponsor Safe-Rides has to do with the misconception that the program is an easy excuse for students to drink.
According to Shelby Spain, director of guidance, testing and assessment for the Fremont Union High School District, the reason the students cannot promote Safe-Rides using district or school resources has nothing to do with alcohol.
"The district does not allow any outside organization to advertise on school grounds, and we need to honor that policy," says Spain, who adds that while the district was researching Safe-Rides, it could not find one district, except for one private high school, that did so.
"Do we think Safe-Rides is a good idea? Yes. But can we sponsor it? No," Spain says.
"It sounds like we don't have a heart, but an outside program cannot use district resources to advertise, and that's not going to change."
Despite being unable to promote the program or receive financial support from the district or the five individual high schools, the handful of Monta Vista students have continued to provide the service with the help of a grant from the Monta Vista PTA.
"I'm thrilled about the program," says Judy Wilson, Monta Vista PTA co-president, whose son Mathew is a member of the Safe-Rides team. The Wilsons are also one of the families that allow the program to be run out of their house on Friday nights.
"I think it does nothing but give an option to a kid that otherwise might not have had one," says Wilson.
She says while most of the calls come from students who are lost, too tired to drive or feel uncomfortable in a given situation, she acknowledges that underage drinking does happen.
"Whether we like to admit it or not, there is a reasonable amount of drinking that goes on," Wilson says.
"But that doesn't mean this program condones drinking. Every year you hear about the kid who drove drunk with three other kids and they all die. If we save one life, to me, this program has paid for itself."
While the Monta Vista PTA grant helps cover the costs of the supplemental insurance, the Safe-Rides students are still looking for a sponsor to help promote the program and provide a permanent location for it.
"We are running out of houses at the moment, and we haven't found anywhere that's been willing to just open its doors to us," says Ferguson. "It costs a lot to rent and we don't have the money to do that."
While the program gets funding by Learning for Life, it is only enough to cover the basic necessities.
"Our organization works through collaboration so when there is a need and a desire for the programs, that's when we enter into the dialogue," says Walter Mueller, development director for the Santa Clara County Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
"Our job in the community is to serve the needs of youth and their families, but it really has to be a grassroots effort."
While the future of the Safe-Rides program in the FUHSD has yet to be determined, the students who are involved with the program hope to see it expand and develop over the next few years.
"Five years from now I would like the program to, at the very least, be endorsed and used district-wide," says Ferguson.
"It's time for the community to take some action to curb drunk driving and other unsafe driving practices. The communities of Cupertino and Sunnyvale need to do something now. We shouldn't have to wait until one of our students dies behind the wheel to get these issues to be confronted."
The Safe-Rides program runs every Friday night from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. Any student in the Fremont Union High School District area can call 408.391.1211 if they need a safe, confidential ride home.
