Saint Patrick to Conduct “Operation Prom”
April 10, 2008

In an effort to educate students about the dangers of drinking and driving during the upcoming prom and graduation season, Saint Patrick High School will conduct “Operation Prom” on Thursday, April 24 with the co-operation of the Chicago Police Department, Chicago Fire Department and Resurrection Medical Center. The program is designed to expose Saint Patrick students to the wide-ranging consequences of drinking and driving.

The program will kick off with the junior and senior classes being escorted to the Belmont Avenue parking lot. Once all of the students are in place, the tarps will be pulled back to reveal a horrific two-car accident. One car holds a family of four, and the other car contains two teenaged couples on their way home from their prom, where they had been drinking. One of the high school students and one of the children from the innocent family will be dead when rescue workers get to them.

The accident scene will be chaotic. The Chicago Fire Department will have an ambulance and a fire truck on the scene. The firemen will be cutting victims out of a car and providing medical care for the survivors. The Chicago Police Department will have squad cars on the scene, with Police officers attempting to maintain order in the midst of the chaos, including keeping an enraged father from attacking the drunken teen that killed his child. This powerful and emotional scene will play out until the police arrest the drunk driver and take him away, and the body of the dead teenager is placed in a body bag and removed by a hearse.

Following the accident in the parking lot, the entire student body will gather for an assembly designed to bring home the horrific consequences of drinking and driving.
Marti Belluschi, DUI Prevention Adviser to Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White will share her powerful story with the students. At the age of 15, Belluschi was sent through the windshield of her father’s car after being hit head-on by a drunk driver going 90 miles per hour. Belluschi had her throat slit by a pane of glass, and she has had to undergo 10 surgeries in an attempt to restore her face. ``Every day I do remember a drunk driver took my face away from me,'' says Belluschi.

When Saint Patrick staged Operation Prom in 2004, 15 students either fainted or became lightheaded during the Belluschi’s presentation in the gymnasium, with seven students taken to local hospitals.