Mt. Abram Senior Brittany Parlin and Advisor Sharon Dudley stand before a poster describing what makes someone a good friend. (BJ Bangs photo) SALEM — Setting up a Students Against Destructive Decisions —SADD— group at Mt Abram High School is something senior Brittany Parlin takes very seriously.

It’s more than a senior project. Parlin wants to set up the group to make students think before making destructive decisions, such as driving while texting, drinking or under the influence of drugs. Those decisions extend to using safety precautions when using the internet, harassment, domestic violence, date violence and tobacco use.

“It’s not all telling others not to do something because … It’s about being there to help others make better decisions, and do it in such a way that it resonates with teens. It needs to be fun, but real,” she said.

Mt. Abram Senior Brittany Parlin stands before a poster she designed advertising the upcoming coffee house at the high school. (BJ Bangs photo) Parlin had been part of a SADD group while at Pocono Mountain West High School in Pennsylvania. The school had 1,700 students in grades 10 through 12, with 475 in her class. Having moved there when she was in the 10th grade, she wanted to get involved so she wouldn’t be “just the new kid.” SADD taught preventable actions. “I learned that teens are not likely to listen to their parents, or their teachers,” she said. “But they are willing to listen to their friends.”

Upon returning to Mt. Abram this fall, she elicited the support of Principal Marco Alberti, Guidance Counselor Mike Ellis and Sharon Dudley, administrative assistant of technology and attendance, who agreed to be the advisor, to start the ball rolling. SADD met in mid-October, and held a Pledge To Be Tobacco Free Day in mid- November in honor of the Great American Smokeout. Students signed a pledge not to smoke or chew that day and learned about the health consequences of those decisions.

As part of National Friendship Month, they have a poster up on where students can say what it means to be good friends. They’ve put up signs showing a fatal accident in Oxford County earlier this year when two teenagers were killed from texting and driving under the influence. Dudley said these teens didn’t think this was going to happen, but it did.

These are serious messages, but Parlin and Dudley plan to put a fun twist on the group. Following February vacation, they are planning to host a coffee house at the MTA cafeteria, featuring student talent —everything from music, art, to reading poetry. Dudley was quick to point out this is not a talent show. For a small fee, students and members of the community can relax, have some fun, and enjoy student talent.

The goal is to bring the coffee house idea, possibly monthly, to other communities where there is a stage. Parlin said if students are having fun at the coffee house, perhaps they will choose to go there rather than go out partying.

Another very hefty goal Parlin has is to stage a mock crash a few weeks before senior prom. About six students will be actors. They will engage a state trooper, local firefighters, emergency medical technicians, a coroner and a hearse.

While plans are very preliminary, Parlin said she could anticipate having pre-recorded music and students talking on the school’s speaker system before they hear the crash.

Then the students will go outside where the covering would be lifted from the previously crashed cars and the actors would be playing the part of a seriously injured or dead people. The EMTs will show the rescue operation. They even will have the coroner pronounce the actors dead, put into body bags, and loaded into a hearse and taken away.

She anticipates another group of students to be whitefaced, the countenances of the victims that were killed in the crash. They and their parents would write their obituaries, so they can see what their friends and family would think if this happened to them.

In Pennsylvania, she said they held a debriefing after the mock crash for students to talk about how they felt. The idea is to discourage kids that are drinking or doing drugs from getting behind the wheel.

While planning for a coffee house and mock crash is quite challenging, Parlin looks to her biggest challenge: making the group sustainable so that underclassmen will move it forward and continue to make it grow. That is part of her senior project paper, “Taking Initiative Against Destructive Decisions by Utilizing SADD to Improve Mt. Abram High School.” In that paper, she said since the formation of SADD, I believe students have had to stop and think about their actions, and understand the consequences.”

With four seniors, and two underclassmen, Parlin said the focus is to attract new members. Sustainability and organizing the Coffee House, Mock Crash, and other events are all part of those efforts. While she admits it is unfortunate that more students have not expressed an interest in SADD, she is hopeful that with time, SADD will impact Mt. Abram in a major way.

Dudley said she was a member of SADD in the 1980s, where the focus was to call a friend and get a ride home, rather than drive drunk or under the influence of drugs. “I hadn’t heard about SADD for a long time,” she said. “It’s about making youths aware of the issues that they might otherwise take for granted.”

Parlin added that some of these destructive decisions can’t be taken back. In the case of mixing drinking, texting and doing drugs with driving, “they can end your life.”