Article: Last Call (draft)

There was quite a show going on at TRHS at noon, Wednesday the 22nd of April. A show called “Last Call” “Last Call” was put on by the local fire and police departments and the hospital with the help of Sheridan Media and a handful of Tongue River High Students. The event started out with all the Tongue River High students and teachers heading out to the parking lot. Once we were all settled in, the “Last Call” skit started. The scene was already set up. Paige Miller lay ‘dead’ on the parking lot a good many feet from the wrecked car. Inside the wrecked vehicle were Colten Caydwood, Kelsie Dellos and Andrew Orchard. Shawn Chalfant was sitting dazed in the other mainly undamaged vehicle involved the ‘crash’. Logan Polowski was narrating from the Sheridan Media van. Logan started off by introducing the scene. Andrew Orchard and his friends had been driving home from Prom when Shawn, who had been drinking, hit them. The impact caused Paige to be ejected from the vehicle while crushing the front end of it. A passerbyer had called the police to report the incident. The passengers in the vehicle begin to wake and move. Andrew was the least injured in the wrecked car and he begin scrambling to get out of the vehicle. All three were calling for someone to get them out. As Andrew scrambled out of the vehicle police began to arrive. One officer went over and restrained Andrew who had seen Paige and was calling to her. The other officer went over and started to question Shawn. A moment later a fire truck arrived. The firemen then began helping the police. A fireman went over a checked Paige for a pulse and assessed her as dead. Next the ambulance arrived. The paramedics checked Paige and upon assessing her as dead they covered her with a white sheet and went to help the others. Andrew was put on a stretcher and taken to the ambulance to be checked for further injuries. A paramedic got in the wrecked car to put a neck brace on Kelsie and to steady her. Meanwhile firemen begin the operation of removing the vehicles’ roof in order to remove the injured safely. While they were removing the roof; Colten complained of not being able to feel his legs and it was afterward assessed that he had taken serious injury and would need to be transported to Casper for treatment. While the firemen worked on getting to the injured Shawn was attempting to walk in a strait line. After failing the drunkenness test Shawn was handcuffed and taken by the police. Logan informed us that he would be taken to court later, fined and charged for DUI and vehicular homicide. About this point Kane funeral home showed up to take Paige’s body to the funeral home. They would have the sad job of calling her parents to inform them of the tragedy. Finally the firemen removed the roof of the wrecked car and the paramedics were able to safely remove the injured and transport them to the hospital. Logan Polowski then concluded his narration by informing us of the fates of those involved. Shawn would go to prison. Colten would live the rest of his life in a wheelchair, immobilized. Kelsie and Andrew would recover and go on to college. But all would live with regrets and none of them would be the same anymore.
After the “Last Call” skit the whole school filed into the auditorium for some follow up messages. Janice Scoonmaker, leader of ‘the line’ program, read a speech and a poem on the dangers of drinking and driving. The poem was called the “Party Poem” and it spoke of one who did all the right things and yet died because of a drunk driver. After her a lady with a last name of Davidson presented a video, Rearview: Looking Back, about several people whose lives were ruined because of driving to fast or driving distracted. After these presentations there was a question and answer with ‘Boot’ our school cop, a paramedic, the man from Sheridan Media and the students who acted in the skit. The program ended around two o’clock.