Today I am to speak to the high school seniors, et al., about the legal consequences of vehicular homicide. Annually the local schools participate in what are charmingly referred to as "Mock Crashes" at the beginning of the prom season. The reasoning, as I understand it, is to try to make them more aware of the dangers of being irresponsible on prom night where motor vehicles are concerned. I suppose they have some sort of instruction about all the other ways they can be irresponsible that night, but today we are only staging a car wreck. There will be people there from the Emergency Services Department, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, local law enforcement, etc. And the Old Bat in Black to talk about what can happen after all of those people have had to deal with the physical mess of a car wreck in which people were killed.
What on earth do you say to a bunch of old children/young adults who feel they are on the verge of doing mighty things? After years (and years and years and ...) of dealing with teenagers in and out of court, the one thing I know is that they think they are invincible. Not in an arrogant, psychotic fashion, but in that way that youth has always been. Death and disfigurement are things that happen to "other people", "old" people, or at least to people you don't know. When it has intruded into their lives at all, they react like thunder and then move on. It is not my intention to belittle or diminish in any way the very real grief they feel, but like many other things associated with the teen years, it passes away in the rush toward adulthood that most other young feelings do.
I wrote the bit above a few hours ago. Now I have had an opportunity to consider the matter after the fact. I was impressed anew at the amount of hard work that went into staging this thing. The scenario included two couples in the car, each a boy and a girl. We are not yet to the point in this small Southern town that we might consider something else. It appears that the young man driving had been drinking
 |
| The Wreck |
something and flipped the car in a one-car accident. A boy and girl were killed in the crash and the driver and the other girl survived, although both were seriously injured. There was lots of shouting and running about. Sirens were making a great deal of noise as the sheriff department arrived, the big fire/emergency truck arrived, the State Highway Patrol arrived, the EMS ambulance arrived. I was certain my dogs were positively wailing while all this was going on. The officers leapt into action, taking statements, moving bodies and doing field sobriety tests. I was standing on the side watching with a dispatcher from the sheriff department and the doctor, who is our local medical examiner. I observed to the dispatcher part way through all of this that she and I were watching what the police people were doing and Dr. Roberts was watching what the medical people were doing. We all agreed that we needed to find a way to expand our horizons! We also noted that it never goes that fast. But I'm not sure that it would hold the attention of a bunch of digital-age teenagers if they had to stand around for the hours and hours it really takes to work one of these messes.
 |
| The Assembly |
Thereafter we wandered into the gymnasium (since the local high school does not run to an auditorium) and the assembled speakers were lined up in a row of metal folding chairs. Each chair had a piece of paper on the seat with the proposed occupant's name on it. However, since the name most approximating mine was spelled incorrectly, I felt I had every right to move the tags around and sit where I wanted to. The whole thing reminded me too much of the execution of James Connolly by the British after the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. Adding to the somewhat surreal aspect of the proceedings was a vigorous sprinkling of orange shirts throughout the assembly. You must understand that our corrections department uses orange scrubs/t-shirts for the prisoners. So, when I see a whole bunch of them together, my mind registers "inmates." Each of us took a few moments to explain to the kids what our role in an event like this would be. By the time they got to me, I told them that I and the attorney sitting next to me were the only ones who probably had never been to the accident site and never actually saw any of the carnage firsthand. I think they were starting to glaze over when I started talking about sentencing ranges and where a convicted defendant, juvenile or not, would be incarcerated. I may have got a couple of them back when I told them about the possible effect of a felony conviction on future background checks. By and large, though, I got the impression that they were thinking that this was all very interesting, but what does it have to do with me? I am, as you know invincible and immortal. I am Teenager. Alas.
And now I'm doing the mental calisthenics required to go teach at the college this evening. Blessedly, it is the last night of proper classes. Next week we have a field trip to that yearly mock trial exercise that the criminal justice department enacts at the courthouse. Very invigorating and exciting unless you happen to work there all the time. Oh well. I had two prosecutors and a defense bar attorney in the class last week speaking about their jobs and educational background. I asked one of the students who is involved in the mock trial to explain the fact situation; after which we lawyers all looked at each other and said, "It sounds like a game of Clue!" Again ... oh well. The week following that is final exams and then I am free as the proverbial bird (after I slog through grading). I shall be thrilled.
No comments:
Post a Comment