The assembly was put together by Hillman’s Students Leading Students group, who collaborated with local emergency officials to simulate what a real-life accident involving students driving under the influence would look like.

Hillman students gathered in the parking lot of the high school where two vehicles with members of SLS inside were staged to look like they had been in a head-on collision. As a part of the reenactment, emergency service personnel arrived on the scene and took action.

The students watched members of the Hillman Area Fire Department demonstrate prying the SLS members out of the cars. They were able to see Emergency Medical Services workers carry a student out on a stretcher and simulate performing CPR on a student who was acting unresponsive and eventually “pronounced dead” on the scene.

The reenactment also showed a police officer administering a sobriety test on one of the SLS members and eventually placing them in handcuffs and “taking them away.”

News Photo by Steve Jakubcin An officer with the Montmorency Sheriff’s Office performs a sobriety test on a Student Leading Students volunteer as part of the impaired driving reenactment assembly being held at the Hillman High School parking lot on Friday.

After that portion of the assembly, the students were ushered into the gymnasium where the SLS volunteer who was “pronounced dead” on the scene was given a mock funeral to emphasize the loss that comes with accidents of this nature.

According to SLS members Aubrie Klein and Gretchen Weiland, the reenactment was part of a $1,000 safe driving campaign. The group decided to go with impaired driving specifically because they believed that the topic of impaired driving was an important topic for students to understand.

“We were offered the chance to win $1,000 for students to put on a campaign about safe driving,” said Klein. “We chose driving impaired because we thought it was the most important thing in our community. We’ve seen this so many times around our community, so many accidents, even in the past couple of years, kids in school have been participating in impaired driving.”

“I feel like this could really help our community,” said Weiland. “Not only is it just targeting one area, it’s targeting the whole community, and I feel like as a whole, it could benefit our community just being more safe.”

SLS is a student-led organization that sees students come together and discusses the issues that affect them at a local level and what actions they can take to address them. According to Weiland, Hillman’s SLS group is only a year old and is eager to do more to improve their community.

News Photo by Temi Fadayomi Emergency Medical Services personnel with Hillman ambulances bring out a stretcher as part of the impaired driving reenactment assembly being held at the Hillman High School parking lot on Friday.

“This is our first year doing students leading students,” said Weiland. “So we’re all kind of new to this. We’re all leaders in the group, but we all want to know how to impact our community more. We learned about leadership skills and how to use our voices.”

According to Hillman Student Success Coach Carrie Sobeck, SLS is already making a tremendous impact on the student body and she is looking forward to what they are going to do next.

“This group of 19 students are leaders,” said Sobeck. “They are looked up to in this school, by the younger kids and their peers. They really represent what Hillman is about, and they just want to spread awareness and whatever it may be.”

News Photo by Temi Fadayomi Students Leading Students members sit inside damaged cars as part of the impaired driving reenactment assembly being held at the Hillman High School parking lot on Friday.

News Photo by Steve Jakubcin Students sit in Hillman High School's gymnasium during their impaired driving reenactment assembly on Friday. The students were ushered into the gymnasium where the SLS volunteer who was “pronounced dead” on the scene was given a mock funeral to emphasize the loss that comes with accidents of this nature.

News Photo by Temi Fadayomi Members of the Hillman Area Fire Department make their way over to the damaged cars as part of the impaired driving reenactment assembly being held at the Hillman High School parking lot on Friday.

News Photo by Temi Fadayomi As part of the impaired driving reenactment assembly being held at the Hillman High School parking lot on Friday, members of the Hillman Area Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services personnel with Hillman ambulances cover up a Students Leading Students volunteer after they are “pronounced dead.”

News Photo by Temi Fadayomi Students Leading Students members sit inside damaged cars as part of the impaired driving reenactment assembly being held at the Hillman High School parking lot on Friday.

News Photo by Temi Fadayomi Members of the Hillman Area Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services personnel with Hillman ambulances treat a Students Leading Students volunteer as part of the impaired driving reenactment assembly being held at the Hillman High School parking lot on Friday.

News Photo by Temi Fadayomi An officer with the Montmorency Sheriff’s Office performs a sobriety test on a Student Leading Students volunteer as part of the impaired driving reenactment assembly being held at the Hillman High School parking lot on Friday.

News Photo by Steve Jakubcin Two Student Leading Students volunteers sit in one of the vehicles used during Hillman's impaired driving reenactment assembly on Friday at Hillman.