TABC guidance programs aim to encourage its adolescents to make smart decisions and to keep the lines of communication between parents and children open. The juniors and seniors recently participated in a program on the dangers of drunk driving. They heard from Mr. Steve Benvenisti, a local personal injury attorney, who described the case of a college student struck by a drunk driver in Daytona Beach, Florida. He then revealed that he was the victim in the case. Officer Kerrington of the Teaneck Police Department then introduced a video, produced by Hackensack Medical Center, which reenacted a horrific car accident caused by a drunk teenage driver. The video was interspersed with personal accounts of parents and siblings of victims of drunk driving.

Mr. Poleyoff then related to the students the moving story of how Sergeant Phillip Lavinge, recently retired from the Teaneck Police Department, had the difficult task of informing parents that their child was killed in an automobile accident. He recounted how he had to walk up the front path of a house in Teaneck, while hearing music and laughter coming from inside, and knew full well that when he knocked on the door, he would change the residents’ lives forever. It is the obligation of all the members of our community to make wise choices with the responsibility that comes with the privilege of driving.