Sober reminder

By Jay Strickland
Journal Editor

May 01, 2008 03:20 pm

— The students at Commerce High School walked around the crumpled remains of what used to be a car, knowing it was the deathbed of a young woman in the prime of her life.
Twenty-one-year-old Amber Menefee of Andrews, Texas, was killed in 2006 when she was struck head on by a drunk driver going the wrong way on the loop in Lubbock, Texas.
It won’t happen to me. That’s the attitude that Paris police officer Sam Owens is trying to combat by taking the mobile display to high schools and colleges across the state. Owens is a graduate of Commerce High School and knows first hand the sorrow and heartache drunk driving can cause.
“It hits home,” Owens said. “It hits home on the streets where I’m working, with the kids who are always getting in trouble with alcohol-related offenses and the ones who are always having wrecks. You go to one house and tell the parents your son’s dead or your daughter’s dead, it hits home that you’ve got to make a difference. If I can make a difference in somebody’ life, then that’s what my purpose is.”
Owens said the response has been great to the program everywhere he has gone. He ‘s been to far West Texas, up into Oklahoma and as far south as College Station.
“Your probably only going to hit 1 or 2 percent of them that will actually pay attention,” he said. “But those one or two might turn into three or four or five or six because they’ll start telling their friends. If I can just make an impact on one kid to make a difference, the peer pressure will pass around. Then I’ve accomplished what I’m trying to do.”
Owens said he did have three girls approach him after one of the sessions at CHS who told him that they were going to remain sober during prom night. They were also going tell all their friends that if they needed a ride, they would come get them.
“We know that kids are going to drink,” he said. “The problem we have is when they try to drive home because they know they’ll get in trouble if they get caught.”
Owens encourages teens to stay sober and be a friend and go get someone if they call for help.
“Drive them home and make sure they’re safe so they won’t end up killing somebody or hurting somebody or hurting themselves,” he said.
Commerce ISD School Resource Officer Joe Venable said he feels the same way about the program.
“If we impacted one kid to prevent him from drinking and driving, or maybe take the keys away from someone else, I consider it a success,” Venable said. “You could see the looks on some of their faces. It’ll make them think twice, hopefully.”
Sponsors of the program Russell Armstrong with AIS Financial and Dick Latson with Latson’s Printing and Office Supply.

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