Pubdate: Wed, 22 Mar 2006
Source: News-Press (FL)
Copyright: 2006 The News-Press
Contact:  http://www.news-press.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1133
Author: Jason Wermers
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

DRAMA TEACHES HARD LESSONS OF DRUGS

Students Play Roles To Avoid

Tuesday proved to be a day of life-changing decisions for four Lee County 
teenagers.

Tiffany, Molly, Travis and Billy were having what they thought was harmless 
fun. They drank several bottles of beer, used several types of drugs -- 
even tried to convince their friend Sarah to go along with them while she 
was babysitting.

Sarah refused and tried to talk them out of their reckless actions.

Instead, Travis was jailed after being stopped for driving while drunk and 
high, and his passenger, Billy, was sentenced to probation.

Even worse, Tiffany died from injuries sustained in an accident after the 
car she was riding in, driven by Molly, flipped over. Molly was charged 
with vehicular manslaughter.

"Poor Tiffany," said the Rev. Charles Sullivan, pastor of Blessed Pope John 
XXIII

Catholic Church in Fort Myers. "She wanted to be popular. But the only 
thing they'll remember about Tiffany is that she made a bad choice, and now 
Tiffany is dead."

Although this sequence of events was staged as part of the Lee County Drug 
House Odyssey 2006 and happened in less than an hour, situations like this 
really play out every day in Lee County, and across the country, Cpl. 
Michelle Sargis of the Lee County Sheriff's Office told a group of St. 
Andrew Catholic School eighth-graders touring the odyssey Tuesday morning.

"It moved me," said Katie Kovacs, 14, a St. Andrew eighth-grader. "It makes 
us think about what decisions we make. That could be us. But it won't be."

Schools from across Lee County sent students to the odyssey Tuesday at Cape 
Christian Fellowship, 2110 Chiquita Blvd. S. in Cape Coral. It continues 
today and Thursday.

The event was revived after a one-year absence. Sheriff Mike Scott urged 
the Lee County Coalition for a Drug-Free Southwest Florida to bring it 
back. Cape Christian Fellowship agreed to host it. First Christian Church 
in Fort Myers was the previous host.

Cape Coral and Fort Myers police officers, Lee County sheriff's deputies 
and paramedics, Lee Memorial Hospital staff, attorneys, judges and police 
chaplains helped students enact the true-to-life arrest, court, hospital 
and death scenes.

The purpose of it all was to show graphic examples of what can happen when 
alcohol and drugs are abused and to help students and parents make better 
decisions.

The most emotional scenes were the ones involving Tiffany, a character 
played by Mariner High School student Maryline Alexis, Cypress Lake High 
School student Kristen Ciancarelli, and others from those schools as the 
odyssey is staged throughout the day.

After Molly and Tiffany invited themselves into Sarah's home and eventually 
were kicked out with their drugs and alcohol, they apparently went on a 
joyride. The next time the St. Andrew students saw them, Cape Coral 
firefighters were pulling an unconscious Tiffany from a car that had 
flipped over, and a Cape police officer was trying to get a disoriented 
Molly to describe what happened.

Two Lee County Emergency Medical Services personnel performed 
cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Tiffany and called for a helicopter.

The next scene is inside Cape Christian, a part of which was made to 
resemble a hospital emergency room. Jason Wilson, an emergency-room staff 
physician at Lee Memorial Hospital, and his staff try every measure they 
can think of to save Tiffany. But they lose her on the operating table. 
Tiffany's parents, played by Dan Schneider, an ER nurse, and Terri Rohraff, 
director of Lee Memorial's ER, broke down at the news.

"This is very accurate," Wilson, 33, of Cape Coral said between 
performances. "That is exactly how it goes down, with the hysterical 
parents. It's one of the toughest cases to deal with."

He added that he sees a case similar to Tiffany's every day.

The emergency-room scene struck Megan Barton, 13, another eighth-grader at 
St. Andrew. What happened next made an impression on schoolmate Miko 
Doughtery, 13.

The students were taken to a dark room with an open casket. Standing behind 
it was Brett Harding, a medical legal death investigator for the District 
21 Medical Examiner's Office, which serves Lee, Glades and Hendry counties. 
He described in graphic detail what happens during an autopsy.

"When you see me, what they've done out there to save you is useless," 
Harding, 42, of Cape Coral told the students. "When they wheel you in, 
you're dead. When they wheel you out, you're dead. There are no rescues, no 
last-minute saves, no second chances." 
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