Perth County Youth Action Committee brings impaired driving awareness event to SDSS
- May 21
- 3 min read
For the first time this year, the Perth County Youth Action Committee held an event at Stratford District Secondary School (SDSS) to educate students about the risks of impaired and risky driving.
The Perth County Youth Action Committee is made up of 15 high school students representing each of the five high schools across Perth County.
The committee’s goal is to raise awareness among youth about social and legal issues in the community and to help create initiatives aimed at improving community safety and well-being on issues affecting young people.
“I think it's incredible to have students want to improve the safety of our roadways and of our community in general,” said Const. Darren Fischer, community resource and media relations officer with Stratford Police Service. “It’s important for students to recognize that this is something that impacts everybody.”
This year, the committee chose to focus on increasing awareness about impaired driving among youth. Thanks to a grant from Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving (OSAID), the group was able to host events at both SDSS and Listowel District Secondary School (LDSS).
“We're very fortunate that our school board allows us and invites us into the schools,” said Const. Marg Geurts of the Perth County OPP. “This way, we can interact with students one-on-one, and get to know them a little bit more, and vice versa; they can see that we're also human beings too.
“We go to crashes and see how they affect entire communities, so if we can educate youth, we can prevent something like that from happening and affecting a school and its community. That's what we're here for,” said Geurts.
The SDSS event was held May 14 as part of Students Against Impaired Driving Day, an annual youth-led initiative dedicated to preventing impaired driving.
Students were invited to the gymnasium to try impaired-driving goggles while participating in games and activities. The goggles simulate the effects of alcohol or marijuana impairment.
“It’s about finding someone's baseline,” said Geurts. “When you are sober, can you catch a ball? However, when you put those glasses on, and then you're trying to catch a ball, it's completely different than if you have the glasses off.”
“It's not just for the people who are wearing the glasses,” she continued. “I find a lot of the people who are watching the activity get more out of it, because sometimes the people with the glasses on will be confident and think they did great. However, everyone else watching saw when they were trying to walk on the line; they're not walking on the line at all.”
“Being under the influence doesn’t just affect driving on the road; it also impacts people cooking or babysitting, or after school at a part-time job, so it’s not just about driving, it’s about safety in general,” said Geurts.
Students from the committee ran the stations and said they learned a great deal through their involvement while helping educate their peers.
“I joined last year because I wanted to be more engaged with what’s happening,” said Ashley Davies, a Grade 10 student and Youth Action Committee member. “I want to be a police officer someday, so this is a great way to learn valuable lessons about the community.”
Activities included Connect Four, ball toss, road-map challenges where students followed road lines while wearing the goggles, trivia and cornhole.
“I think this is a great initiative because we get to participate in school activities and actually teach and educate other students,” said Urvi Sharma, a Grade 10 student and Youth Action Committee member. “With the goggles, students can learn the difference between being sober or being under the influence of alcohol, so it teaches them that difference.”
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