When a friend called her a coward for not drinking enough alcohol, Emily Cox downed three shots, back to back, during the middle of a school day.
Cameras followed the 17-year-old as she stumbled to her car and climbed behind the wheel to head back to school, with her friend in the passenger seat.
NEWSLETTER: Get the latest 818 headlines straight to your inbox >>
The scene was completely staged.
But what followed on the script became a sobering reminder for 1,250 John Burroughs High School juniors and seniors about the consequences of drinking and driving.
The video, prepared as part of the two-day “Every 15 Minutes” program, went on to show the aftermath of a staged collision in which Cox fatally struck her teacher’s husband, who was crossing the street after having lunch on the school lawn with his wife and son.
That included the student’s arrest and subsequent court hearing, in which she was handed a 10-year prison sentence.
1/11
During the “Every 15 Minutes” simulation, Burbank police officer Todd Burns gives sobriety test to actor and student Emily Cox, in front of Burroughs High School, in Burbank on Thursday, April 21, 2016. “Every 15 Minutes” is a program with real cars, police, fire and coroner dept. personnel and actor students who act out a scene of a multiple-vehicle accident with fatalities. The program warns students on the dangers of drunk driving. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
2/11
During the “Every 15 Minutes” simulation, Burbank Fire Dept. personnel and L.A. County Coroner personnel remove the body of actor and student Josh Strobl, in front of Burroughs High School, in Burbank on Thursday, April 21, 2016. “Every 15 Minutes” is a program with real cars, police, fire and coroner dept. personnel and actor students who act out a scene of a multiple-vehicle accident with fatalities. The program warns students on the dangers of drunk driving. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
3/11
During the “Every 15 Minutes” simulation, students watch as Burbank Fire Dept. personnel tend to actor accident victim Randy Tobin, in front of Burroughs High School, in Burbank on Thursday, April 21, 2016. “Every 15 Minutes” is a program with real cars, police, fire and coroner dept. personnel and actor students who act out a scene of a multiple-vehicle accident with fatalities. The program warns students on the dangers of drunk driving. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
4/11
During the “Every 15 Minutes” simulation, students show different reactions as an actor student plays a dead person, covered inside a vehicle, in front of Burroughs High School, in Burbank on Thursday, April 21, 2016. “Every 15 Minutes” is a program with real cars, police, fire and coroner dept. personnel and actor students who act out a scene of a multiple-vehicle accident with fatalities. The program warns students on the dangers of drunk driving. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
5/11
During the “Every 15 Minutes” simulation, students react to the scene of a fatal accident, in front of Burroughs High School, in Burbank on Thursday, April 21, 2016. “Every 15 Minutes” is a program with real cars, police, fire and coroner dept. personnel and actor students who act out a scene of a multiple-vehicle accident with fatalities. The program warns students on the dangers of drunk driving. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
6/11
During the “Every 15 Minutes” simulation, students playing ghosts watch the body of a fellow student actor being taken away by L.A. County Coroner personnel, in front of Burroughs High School, in Burbank on Thursday, April 21, 2016. “Every 15 Minutes” is a program with real cars, police, fire and coroner dept. personnel and actor students who act out a scene of a multiple-vehicle accident with fatalities. The program warns students on the dangers of drunk driving. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
7/11
After the “Every 15 Minutes” simulation, Burbank superintendent of schools Matt Hill gives an emotional talk about the dangers of drunk driving, in front of Burroughs High School, in Burbank on Thursday, April 21, 2016. “Every 15 Minutes” is a program with real cars, police, fire and coroner dept. personnel and actor students who act out a scene of a multiple-vehicle accident with fatalities. The program warns students on the dangers of drunk driving. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
8/11
During the “Every 15 Minutes” simulation, Burbank police officer Todd Burns, first on scene, checks on student actor accident fatality Josh Strobl, in front of Burroughs High School, in Burbank on Thursday, April 21, 2016. “Every 15 Minutes” is a program with real cars, police, fire and coroner dept. personnel and actor students who act out a scene of a multiple-vehicle accident with fatalities. The program warns students on the dangers of drunk driving. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
9/11
During the “Every 15 Minutes” simulation, Burbank Fire Dept. personnel “filet” a vehicle to extract a student actor playing a dead person, in front of Burroughs High School, in Burbank on Thursday, April 21, 2016. “Every 15 Minutes” is a program with real cars, police, fire and coroner dept. personnel and actor students who act out a scene of a multiple-vehicle accident with fatalities. The program warns students on the dangers of drunk driving. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
10/11
During the “Every 15 Minutes” simulation, Burbank police officer Todd Burns gives sobriety test to actor and student Emily Cox, in front of Burroughs High School, in Burbank on Thursday, April 21, 2016. “Every 15 Minutes” is a program with real cars, police, fire and coroner dept. personnel and actor students who act out a scene of a multiple-vehicle accident with fatalities. The program warns students on the dangers of drunk driving. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
11/11
During the “Every 15 Minutes” simulation, actor and student Alyssa Magoon plays a ghost, in front of Burroughs High School, in Burbank on Thursday, April 21, 2016. “Every 15 Minutes” is a program with real cars, police, fire and coroner dept. personnel and actor students who act out a scene of a multiple-vehicle accident with fatalities. The program warns students on the dangers of drunk driving. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
Though staged, the situation was all too real for Cox, who lost two family members after a drunk-driving collision in 2005.
“It was hard to be put in a position where I had to do it to someone else,” she said.
The program, organized by the school along with Burbank police and fire officials as well as the California Highway Patrol, serves to empower all students to speak up and take away the keys from friends who try to drive after drinking, said Kenny Knoop, assistant principal of athletics and activities.
This year marked the first since 2009 that the school hosted the program.
“A lot of education doesn’t come with Common Core, doesn’t come with the textbook,” Knoop said. “That’s what this is about.”
The roughly dozen students involved in dramatizing the daytime party and subsequent crash spent this week touring a local funeral home, as well as Burbank’s police and fire headquarters, courthouse and a local junkyard.
Along for the police-station tour was Officer Sean Toth, whose worst day in 22 years in law enforcement came three years ago, when he was assigned the task of notifying the families of five young people killed in a fiery drunk-driving crash in Burbank.
Participating in this week’s program was labor-intensive, but incredibly rewarding for Toth.
“I would do it a million times over if it saved one life,” he said.
--
Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com
Twitter: @atchek
