Project Ignition Story of the Week: Teens Tackle Safe Driving in Arkansas

Apply now for funding to support student-led teen driver safety promotion projects through Project Ignition. Applications are due Nov. 15, 2010. Visit www.sfprojectignition.com for more information.

Fayetteville High School students are beginning the second year of their efforts to affect the habits of fellow teen drivers in Arkansas, thanks to the grant program Project Ignition, funded by State Farm® and coordinated by NYLC. Building on their many first-year successes, students are working with service-learning teacher Connie Crisp, the local Students Against Destructive Decisions chapter, the Student Council and Parent Teacher Student Organization to expand their reach district-wide and to other high schools in the state.

With their first project, implemented in 2009-2010, students conducted a broad, multi-faceted campaign covering seatbelt use, drinking and driving, and driving distractions. After a third-grade student at a district elementary school was paralyzed in a car crash due, in part, to not wearing a seatbelt, Project Ignition students were asked to plan lessons and present to the student's classmates. The students signed pledges to wear their seatbelts and brought pledges home to their parents as well. "We heard first-hand from parents about the significant impact this had on their decisions," said Crisp.

According to Crisp, "The presentation was a tremendous success and as a result we formed the Seatbelt Safety Patrol, a group of Project Ignition students who will speak at all elementary, middle and junior high schools in the district about the importance of seatbelt use."

To capture the attention of the high school audience, students Allissa Whitlock and Jessica King produced music videos with critical messages during their service-learning elective course and after school. "We made it fun. We weren't nagging.” said Whitlock. “We were showing that it is … cool to wear your seatbelts.” The videos featured their original rap songs and were shown at the high school before homecoming and prom. In English class, students wrote reflections on the videos.

Students also raised awareness of new Arkansas laws that impact teen drivers. Not wearing a seatbelt and texting while driving are now stoppable offences, and an 11:00 p.m. curfew and restrictions on the number of unrelated people allowed in a car are in place for 16- and 17-year-old drivers. Announcements were made weekly about the new laws. And, due to a large Hispanic population, Spanish students translated the new laws into Spanish for posters hung throughout the school.

"I've learned a lot of scary statistics," said Whitlock, who now knows that motor vehicle crashes are the number one cause of death among teens in the United States. She also has learned that teens have the lowest seat belt use rates of any age group, and that almost two out of three teens killed as occupants of motor vehicles are unrestrained. Much of this information came from police officers who spoke with students during lunch and in a variety of classes.

Other activities in their first year of Project Ignition included awarding students who were "caught" with their seatbelts on. Health students played kick ball while wearing goggles designed to simulate impaired driving. Art students created a logo and t-shirt for the initiative. Photography students created a poster campaign on driver safety using the school's mascot. Math students used driver safety statistics to do a lesson on percentages and statistics.

"Before I got involved, I will admit that I didn't wear my seatbelt and I did text while driving. But now I don't. Unfortunately, not everyone knows what I know," said Whitlock.

As these Arkansas students continue their involvement in Project Ignition for the second year, more students will know what Whitlock knows. Students attend the National Service-Learning Conference each year to present their projects and learn from others — a benefit of Project Ignition involvement. Whitlock anticipates that the impact and reach of their second year will be even greater, thanks to what they learned at the conference last spring.