Linda
Dutil is an emergency room nurse from Maine. She's seen a lot in the
ER.
That's what brings her to Lennox High School. Dutil says, "most
people don't
realize what happens in the emergency room,. They don't realize all
of those
events that take place as a result of poor choices."
Dutil uses humor and graphic detail to tell the horrors of underage
drinking and
drug overdose. Lennox Senior Matt Trotter says, "you hear about
parties every
night and every weekend. It really affects a lot of us."
Props like pills and medical equipment help drive Linda's message
home.For
example she shows a scope that goes down your throat so a doctor can
see your airways and holds up a tube that's used for stomach
pumping. Things the
students will take with them. Senior Nick Poppe is one of them. What
surprised
him was "all the medical stuff that goes on and all the
gruesome details."
Some students think
that's the kind of stuff you can't learn at home or in school. Poppe
adds, "she has a first hand view. Guidance counselors and
teachers they might not always have been there. They try, but it
helps that she's seen it and been through it."
Dutil's glad the message is getting through, but there's one that
she says is the
most important: "within them they have the power to make good
choices and that no one can take that away from them."
But it's a message Dutil hopes they'll take away from her and use
everyday.
Her speech is sponsored by Beal Distributing in Sioux Falls. A
spokesman for
the beer distributing company says it is dedicated to preventing
underage
drinking.
What do you think?
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