Every other year at Granite Bay High School, a program titled Every 15 Minutes is put on for juniors and seniors to experience the effects of drunk driving and driving under the influence. However, this year, the program will not be happening. 

Every 15 Minutes was a biennial, two-day event that helped teens understand the importance of safe driving, specifically the effects of driving drunk. The California Highway Patrol, or the CHP, ran it for GBHS’ case, but the program is nationwide. 

Tamara Givens, GBHS Student Government teacher and adviser, was the person the CHP communicated with in the past to organize the event. According to her, it was not cancelled, just never organized. 

“It got really difficult to coordinate,” Givens said. 

The CHP has not been in contact with Givens, and the last time the event was held here at GBHS, the scheduling of the dates for the events was complicated. 

“We’ve had to get our kids to the hospital [at six in the morning] rather than running like there’s an accident, and they go in an ambulance,” Givens said.

Givens also expressed that more students at GBHS text and drive than they do drink and drive or drive under the influence. Explaining that there were more prominent concerns in her opinion. 

On the other hand, students believe that the program did help to educate them, even though it may be slightly less relevant to them compared to other programs about distracted driving. 

Mark Hurianov, a sophomore at GBHS, is one of the students who believes the program was useful. 

“Teenagers need to understand the seriousness of their inattention on the roads in all its reality, without softening or leaving things unsaid, just like it happens in the real world,” Hurianov said. 

Every 15 minutes was a very realistic and visceral experience to those who participated, and some of the students watching from the outside were waiting to see that viscerality for themself. 

Olivia Martin, a junior at GBHS, said, “I’m sad that it’s not happening. Because this is my first year that I would be able to go out and watch it in person and I think that would be really cool to see and I’ve been excited to see it for years.”

Many students are preparing to get behind the wheel in the near future. Kim Iakoiakova, a junior at GBHS, is looking into getting her license and was interested in this program and how it would have benefited her as a driver. 

“I’ll be taking my driver’s license test soon, and I really like that I could benefit from this program,” Lakoiakova said.