The timing is gut-wrenching. And predictably, the conversation has already shifted to whether the program "works" — as if a single tragedy invalidates the entire concept of educational outreach.
Let's pump the brakes on that.
As one Bay Area resident put it bluntly: "You don't question the effectiveness of a program after one incident." That's correct. One data point is not a trend. These simulations have been part of high school life across California for decades. Some kids listen. Some don't. That's how every educational intervention in the history of education has worked.
But there's a more honest conversation lurking underneath the headlines, and it's one people don't love having: where were the parents?
One local resident nailed it: "You know who else should be making sure their 17-year-old is not out drinking and driving? Parents." Schools can stage all the dramatic crash reenactments they want, but they cannot replace parental accountability. A simulation is a tool. It is not a substitute for adults doing the unglamorous, tedious work of knowing where their kids are at night and who's handing them alcohol.
Another commenter raised a systemic point worth considering: "The most consequential way to end drunk driving in teens is to make public transport convenient, accessible, cheap, and running at night. Like in Europe or Asia. Instead the local government is trying to cut the little transit we have." There's something to this. When you design a region around cars and then gut late-night transit options, you're essentially guaranteeing that some percentage of drunk people — including teenagers — will get behind the wheel.
None of this excuses the choice to drive drunk. Individual responsibility still matters. But blaming a school program for a teenager's fatal decision is the kind of misdirected outrage that lets the real failures — parental oversight, transit infrastructure, cultural norms around underage drinking — off the hook entirely.
This story is a tragedy. Let's not turn it into a convenient excuse to defund the one thing the school was actually trying to do right.
