It was hard to miss.  Every Fifteen Minutes dominated the campus the past two days to show the dangers of drinking and driving. This event takes place every two years and never fails to shed tears of the Rocklin High School student body.

This year’s re-enactment was especially strong due to Lizzie Jones and Brandon Walberg’s extraordinary performance that made almost everyone in the stands choke up. Yet what really hit home for everyone was watching Trent Peterson’s parents react to seeing their “dead” son lying on the hood of the car.

Not only was the actual crash scene emotional, (and also had a nice touch with the helicopter appearance), but the funeral was said to be one of the, if not the most, depressing moment of this entire organization. At the funeral, there was a follow up video shown where it announced the death of Kendall Zellars and Destaney Adams at the hospital. In this video, Destaney’s father was without a doubt the hardest to watch considering his reaction to his little girl’s “death.”

Also at the funeral, parents read aloud their eulogy’s for there kids who symbolically died for the program about drinking and driving and one particular parent did a great job bringing in his perspective. Ty Medd’s father’s speech was accessible to the juniors and seniors and even made them laugh at this remorseful funeral. Another parent that most say was had a major impact was Mrs. Abby Lyle who had a very poetic speech about her two daughters that “died” as well. The cop that spoke at the end of the funeral was very intense which was probably him trying to scare teens out of drinking and driving, not a bad tactic.

Needless to say, everyone had been crying and tissues were passed around everywhere. Props are given to Mrs. Amber Tillery and Mrs. Jill Meshwert for putting together this impressive and eye-opening experience, especially knowing it was their first year being in charge of Every Fifteen Minutes.

While there was plenty of praise to go around, there were also some negative aspects that students noticed and were not afraid to share.

To start off, Max O’Rourke, the drunk driver, was not read his Miranda Rights when being arrested. Anything that Max says before his rights are read can’t be used against him in a court of law. Many students noticed this problem with the arrest during the assembly.

Rocklin High senior Josh Gurnaby took to Twitter to express his feelings to Max. He had tweeted to Max, “He didn’t read you your Miranda rights. You’re free to go.” This is not accurate.

In fact,  Miranda rights do not have to be immediately read in a DUI case. The driver does has some rights, but only when clearly arrested and being questioned do Miranda Rights kick in.

For the sake of brevity those rights were delayed until the driver was booked.

Although this does not actually allow Max to leave after his arrest, it is good to know that students at Rocklin are aware of their rights.

Another aspect that students were upset about was the location. The stands that were set up to the left and right sides of the scene had not been a good plan after all. Since anyone who was sitting there could not see and soon got easily frustrated. The sound was also limited for some.

Requiring all students to attend also led to more behavior issues in the stands, as well. Upon returning some classes simply returned to work rather than have a discussion session to follow the assembly and what students saw.

Many juniors and seniors compared it to the last Every Fifteen Minutes that had taken place and most said one thing in common: two years ago was better because of the amphitheater location, cloudy day, there weren’t any ambulance or police cars in the way of the view and more screaming and emotion from the actors was heard and seen by all. Moreover, the people in black last year had face paint and hoods on, and they walked out behind the funeral service truck which helped people understand what they represented (more dead students from drinking and driving).

Maybe in two years, location should go back to being in the amphitheater and Tillery and Meshwert can hope for the next upcoming cloudy day to really set the mood. However, they, the students involved, and the first responders from the Rocklin community did an impressive job overall of showing what happens when one drinks and drives and definitely made an impact on the school these past two days.

It was time well spent.

To see what teachers and parents in the community have to say about Every Fifteen Minutes visit this link http://storify.com/rocklinhsflash/every-15-minutes

* The Flash regrets spelling Ms. Meshwert’s name wrong in the original version of this story. It was updated at 8:15 a.m. on March 20.  To clarify further, we have cited the fact this is a journalism staff editorial developed by the editorial leadership team.  We also believe the team producing the video portions of the show should have been recognized in the original version.