What’s Right with Our Schools: Dade County High School Buckle Up Videos
DADE COUNTY, GA (WDEF) – Students in Dade County are putting a new spin on an old rule. They’re using their creativity to get everyone to buckle up. That could be a lifesaving example of what’s right with our schools.
Josh Hurst is the Audio Video Technology and Film Teacher at Dade County.
He explains, “GPTV or GPB.org sponsors a video contest every year where they ask students across the state of Georgia to do a short commercial or public service announcement on buckling up and safe driving practices. Josh Hurst: It’s open to all high school students in the state of Georgia, and they basically have a contest where they sponsor the contest, and they award top three placers.”
Phinehas Doe is a junior at Dade County.
He says, “My video was basically you kind of had to figure out it was kind of an implied meaning. Afterward, it showed me in a hospital bed. It was like kind of is implied that you should drive safely and take all the proper procedures, like putting on your seatbelt.”
Mr. Hurst adds, “Well, the content of the video, they’re basically just wanting teenagers to be safe drivers.”
Junior Carter McKenzie chips in, “We were heading up the mountain after we had just left the elementary school when I remember my mother getting a phone call because my brother had just gotten into a very bad car accident. I remember when we arrived, just seeing him lying on a stretcher as I kind of stepped out of the car and sat on the side of the road, and I just watched him get lifted into the ambulance. It was very significant to me in that moment because I was very afraid if I’d ever get to see him again.”
Mr. Hurst says, “I think that personal connection of actually having something have happened to a family member that probably stood out to the judges in one situation. Out of our 14 submissions, we had five groups that ended up in the top 20 in the state of Georgia. According to my calculations, I think we’ve got three in the top ten.”
Sophomore Tanner Miller says, “It’s a good feeling because this is the first video I’ve actually placed in, because I made one other video that I thought would do really well and did not do really well. And then this video, I was like, oh, okay, well, maybe I can do something with this bet I didn’t place in the one I thought I’d get first in, and I placed in the one I didn’t think would place. So, it’s a pretty good feeling.”
Mr. Hurst concludes, “According to GPB, the winners will be posted or announced on December 4. If we make the top three, we’ll be invited to one of the state championship games at the Mercedes Benz stadium. And then they will announce the winners, basically by playing them in order on the jumbotron, and then they will actually go out in the live stream of the state championship games.”
