By Matt Mauney | Associate Editor
If you visited Durant High School last week, you may have noticed something strange.
A wrecked car sits in front of one of the busiest student entrances to the school. Nearly 2,800 miniature crosses — signifying the number of teenagers who die in car crashes annually in the United States — were added to the grounds throughout the week. And on Dec. 13, more than 100 students went through the school day without uttering a single word.
The demonstrations were all part of Buckle Up Week, a campaign that stresses the importance of wearing a seat belt, especially among teenagers, who are among the worst offenders. The campaign was scheduled right before the winter break, when students may be more careless when behind the wheel.
“As a mother and a teacher, it’s an issue that I’m very strong on,” said Courtney Singletary, the sponsor of Durant’s Student Government Association.
The wrecked car that sits in front of the school is from an actual Tampa Bay area teenage driving accident in which the driver failed to fasten their seat belt. Textbooks and homework still are sprawled out on the floor of the mangled car, and the keys remain in the ignition.
“It’s interesting to overhear students talking to each other about it,” Singletary said. “It definitely gets their attention and gets them thinking.”
Singletary has been involved with the program for several years, and her students have gone to great lengths to spread the message to buckle up.
“Unfortunately, we’ve had several student accident deaths here at Durant over the years,” she said, noting that for about a 10-year span, the school averaged one death per year. “Luckily, that stat has gone down the last few years.”
Singletary noted students were wearing seat belts in many of those cases but said the danger increased exponentially if they failed to buckle up.
Buckle Up Week is a partnership between Hillsborough County Public Schools and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. Schools county-wide participated in weeklong effort.
Students involved with the campaign have used a variety of approaches throughout the years, but the efforts this year were especially unique.
On Dec. 13, Durant held a “Blackout Day,” during which students dressed in all black. A total of 120 students wore tombstone necklaces around their necks, signifying that they were “dead” and thus could not speak for the entire day.
“It’s a unique way to get the point across,” Singletary said.
The number represents the average number of teenage driving deaths in Florida each year.
In addition to posters throughout the school and other marketing efforts, students passed out candy to drivers wearing their seat belts when lined up in the parking lot for dismissal and would not let students leave until they buckled up.
As part of Buckle Up Week, the “Battle of the Belts” campaign pits schools county-wide against one another to see which school is the best at buckling up.
Student drivers at county schools participated in three secret checks. Seat-belt usage is counted and averaged, and the schools with the highest success rate split a $5,000 reward from Geico.
The final belt check occurred this week, and the winners will be announced in January. Durant scored a perfect 100% in its first check last week.
Contact Matt Mauney at mmauney@plantcityobserver.com.