Article

P'burg requires parents to hear mom's tragic tale
Monday, April 02, 2007 • By DANIEL HAUSMANN • The Express-Times

PHILLIPSBURG | Superintendent Gordon Pethick has to see the reminders every day -- the roadside memorials for the crash victims.

More and more lately, the crosses are for someone who hadn't yet graduated high school.

"You always hate to get those calls," Pethick said.

School administrators have been working with police and local officials to curb aggressive teen driving. Now they want to pull parents into the fight to keep their kids safe.

Phillipsburg High School is requiring parents or guardians of 12th-graders to attend one of two May 23 town hall meetings. At the end of the meeting, the parents will pick up their kids' $100 senior banquet tickets.

Vicki Cummings, a Forks Township mother who lost her son Michael in a crash last year, will deliver the keynote address at the meetings. Her son would have graduated this year.

For Cummings, it's her first speech since the tragedy.

"I've been giving it thought," Cummings said. "I thought it would be worthwhile to try and reach some kids."

Cummings will be on a panel with Ashley Matlock, a 12th-grader who lost her sister Amber 13 months ago when she died in a Route 22 crash.

"You have two people close to the pain and suffering," high school Principal Mary Jane Deutsch said.

Deutsch cited the spike in teen road deaths across the Lehigh Valley as the need for this town hall meeting. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, car crashes account for 40 percent of teenage deaths.

"Everybody is dealing with these issues; we're seeing a lot more reckless behaviors in kids," Deutsch said. "This is something tangible we can do."

Tying it to the June 9 senior banquet can also remind parents of an incident last year. Pethick said a group of seniors went to Seaside Heights after the banquet and got into trouble with drinking,

An officer at the Seaside Heights Police Department couldn't speak about any incident without a name of those involved.

The senior banquet this year, as it has for the past few years, is a dinner cruise around Manhattan. School officials said the schedule for the banquet will be enough to curb teen drinking that night.

Student buses will not get back to Phillipsburg until 3 a.m.

"There is really no chance for them to get involved in something improper," Pethick said.

However, the school can't do much about the rest of the weekend. That's where, they hope, the parents come in.

Deutsch doesn't want to spend the afternoon and evening meetings lecturing parents on how to raise their kids. Rather she hopes to have a "great dialogue."

The school is also willing to make arrangements for parents who can't make either session.

"We'll do whatever it takes to reach out to parents," Deutsch said.

Cummings said making the town hall meeting mandatory for parents is "awesome" and every district should follow the lead.

George Chando, director of secondary education, said it gets harder every year coming up with new activities and ways of getting through to teens.

Students will be getting a lot of warnings about the dangers of reckless driving in the next few months.

On April 17, Mothers Against Drunk Driving will give presentations to juniors and seniors.

After that meeting, the Joint Task Force on Teenage Driving will announce stepped-up patrols through Phillipsburg and the surrounding school district.

"The timing is everything," Pethick said.

Deutsch said tragedies can touch kids who didn't even know those who have died.

"It has the ability to paralyze your school," she said.

Goal is to save young lives

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