Schools tie responsible driving with parking permits

Program requires teens to attend safety seminar

By Karen Nitkin
Special To The Sun
Originally published August 26, 2005
As she watched slide after slide of crumpled cars and read the horrifying statistics about teen drivers, Claudia Danner could not help but cringe. As the mother of a teen driver, she said, "You worry all the time."
Yet, painful as the experience was, she was glad to attend the safe-driving seminar at Centennial High School on Wednesday night with her son, Chris, 17. "I think it's good for him to see it," she said.
Chris, however, had a different perspective. "It's repetitive," he said. "I've seen almost the same video like three times."
He saw it during his driver education program, before the prom and before homecoming, he said.
Still, he conceded, "It's good, I guess. It kind of freaks you out."
The Danners were among about 350 parents and students attending the hourlong seminar at Centennial. This year, the county has implemented a systemwide program requiring high school students who want a parking permit to attend the safety class with a parent or guardian.
"The reason we're doing this is over the last four years we have realized we've lost 10 students and recent graduates to fatal motor vehicle collisions in the county," said Steve Drummond, security coordinator for the school system.
A committee of students, educators, safe-driving advocates and police got together to discuss how to improve the situation, he said.
"A number of meetings were held, and we decided the only control we had over students was the issue of parking permits," Drummond said. "We decided to tie the privilege of parking permits to the responsibility of attending a safety presentation."
Each of the public high schools in the county is holding at least two sessions, Drummond said.
At Centennial, school resource officer Mark Perry narrated the slides, most of which showed horribly damaged vehicles, the result of drunken, fast or irresponsible teen driving.
Some of the slides also discussed Maryland driving laws, noting, among other things, that starting Oct. 1 teen drivers are not allowed to use cell phones and can have only family members as passengers for the first 151 days after getting a provisional license. more... http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/howard/bal-ho.parking26aug26,1,2096295.story?coll=bal-local-howard