'Ghost Out' makes big impression on students

Getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle is serious business at any time and if you've been drinking, it's a dangerous decision that can end your life.

That was the message delivered at Nevada High School Friday by an eerily attired "grim reaper" and a dozen students who spoke to no one after being taken out of class and having their faces painted white.

The "Ghost Out" program left many of the school's 730 students in a melancholy but enlightened frame of mind, they said.

Library Media Specialist Ranea Schultz and special education teacher Mary Mauer co-sponsored the program upon learning Missouri averages an alcohol-related traffic death every 43 minutes.

It was one of their series of "Living Out Loud" activities to encourage a positive approach, including wholesome tailgate parties before football games, Mauer said.

"We're encouraging the kids to wear seatbelts and not to drink and drive or text while driving," she said.

It was the school's first Ghost Out since 2007, but students said Friday that another one should be staged before next spring's prom, said Mauer.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Mark Harwell of Nevada has investigated some 20 accidents involving teenage deaths in his 30-year career. "Young kids are always the worst because they had a lot of living left to do," Harwell said Friday at the school.

"The hardest part of a trooper's job is knocking on the parents' door."

Seniors Rusty Johnson, who portrayed the grim reaper, and Michelle Westerhold, who said her silence had the intended effect, estimated that 10 percent of the NHS student body -- or about 70 students -- regularly drinks alcohol.

Draped in black and wearing a hood, Johnson said the whole school watched when he came into the cafeteria at lunch and took out two students who returned with ghostly faces. "It made a big impact as if it were happening in reality," he said.

"There were a lot of hand signs and writing on paper and holding it up. Everyone has been talking about it."

Westerhold said the program, agreed to by all participants on Thursday, "showed kids how scary it can be to lose friends in a car crash."

Reporting that friends often tried to get her to speak, she said, "They all said it was weird for me to go all day without talking back."

Others who took part were seniors Kelci Cliffman, Allie Irwin, Danny Bell and Jake Brasfield, juniors Kyle Schmidt and Jordan Wilson, sophomore Emmaly Ellis and freshmen Meaghan Cavallero, Easton Mitchell and Kyler Cliffman.