Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said he was so impressed with the grant application from Salisbury High School, he wanted to meet the people in the community supporting the Students Against Destructive Decisions program at the school.

Upon entering the school Aug. 31 for a press conference, Shapiro made it a point to greet school officials, teachers, Salisbury Township Police Chief Allen Stiles, School Resource Officer Richard Nothstein, State Rep. Daniel McNeill, D-133rd, Chief of Staff Joe Kelly, representing State Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-18th, Brad Fulmer, supervisor of security at Lehigh Valley Health Network and school board members Mary Ziegler and President Frank Frankenfield.

However, Shapiro was most interested in meeting the students involved with SADD at SHS.

After greeting each one with a handshake and engaging them in conversation about their efforts at the school, Shapiro went to the podium to announce the award of the $15,000 grant which enabled the district to purchase the Simulated Impaired Driving Experience (SIDNE®) cart.

SIDNE® will help the district deliver engaging and hands-on campaigns addressing the misuse and abuse of alcohol and other drugs and the dangers of distracted driving.

“In too often times, I know you have communities where you have a police chief like your great chief here and state representatives and a state senator and others who stand up and say they want to do something about this – fight for funding or legislation or policies or what have you to do it, but when you don’t have buy in in the community, it is destined to fail,” Shapiro said.

“Unless you have the public involved and engaged, you are not going to be able to make a dent in this. It’s one thing to see a dedicated school board step up and say we want to do something about this, or really committed teachers but, boy oh boy, when the students step up and say we recognize the dangers and we not only want to take a lead on writing to the Attorney General and asking him for resources and funding for help but more importantly, you stepped up and demonstrated you wanted to be models for your classmates,” Shapiro said.

“The strength of character that each and every one of you shows by standing up and leading the lifestyle you are, which is making smart and responsible decisions and trying to go beyond that to help others make smart responsible decisions and avoid these destruction decisions, that’s cool. That’s impressive. Hopefully that’s the Salisbury way and the way of other students in the school here. I’m really impressed with you guys.”

Shapiro said most of the grants given out are $1,000 or $2,000 and it is rare when they receive a request of this size. Shapiro said when they saw this and recognized the commitment the SADD students were making to the safety and wellness of themselves and their peers, they decided they needed to step up and be a part of that.

With the infrastructure behind the students, Shapiro said “This is a community we want to invest in.”

Assistant Principal Brian Muschlitz said “The purpose of the grant is to assist parents, communities, schools and nonprofit organizations in their efforts to educate communities on the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse and offer resources. “To be a successful recipient of the grant, our school partnered with LVHN and the Salisbury Township police,” Muschiltz said. He also thanked McNeill and Boscola for their support of the grant proposal in Harrisburg.

“We could not have done this without the support of LVHN who supported our initiative by providing at least 10 percent of the total cost of the project,” Muschilitz added.

The SIDNE® cart was purchased from Innocorp, a leader in this technology based in Wisconsin.

SIDNE® is a computer on wheels. It has two speeds and simulates impaired driving when programmed to do so.

In fact, Shapiro put on a helmet and a seat belt and took a few turns around the gymnasium course. The first time around was fine. When the impairment was raised, Shapiro had trouble steering and controlling the vehicle, knocking down cones along the way.

The same situation occurred when students attempted driving impaired and serving as a passenger with an impaired driver.

Student Hailey Omollo said she was “scared” as a passenger while driver Lenny Dominique was driving in the impaired mode.

“This may help you make a decision to not get into a car with an impaired driver,” Nothstein told the students. Both students agreed.

Dominque said the experience of driving impaired was “terrifying.”

Shapiro agreed with the students. “That is really something.”