Girls Inc. participant Sabrina Gasana said she didn’t know Bailey Miller well.
But when she heard Miller died in a car accident caused by a drunk driver earlier this year, she said she knew she could still do something about it.
Gasana, 16, and several of her friends organized a presentation on underage drinking and drunken driving Friday in honor of Miller, who was also a Girls Inc. participant.
A board with Miller’s name and a picture of her favorite pink cowboy boots sat in the corner of the Girls Inc. gymnasium where the panelists spoke.
“When we found out about Bailey, we knew we wanted to make drinking and driving the topic of our panel,” Gasana said.
“When you live in a college town, you almost get desensitized to the drunk driving accidents and underage drinking, but we wanted to try to make an impact.”
The students organized the panel as part of Leading and Education Across Domains, a youth alcohol and drug prevention program.
IU Police Department Sgt. Rebecca Schmuhl, Ivy Tech Community College student Emylee Huard, Mothers Against Drunk Driving victim services specialist Lael Hill and LEAD director Eric Evans spoke on the panel.
“Drivers under 21 make up about 10 percent of the driving population but account for 20 percent of all drunk driving accidents,” said Huard, who studies addiction. “It’s a consequence a lot of high school and college students don’t think about when they decide to drink.”
Hearing of a drunk driving accident is no longer a surprise to those living in a college town, Schmuhl said. She said she wishes students would recognize the science of what alcohol does to the body regardless of whether they are of legal drinking age.
“Even if you’re of legal age or even if your blood alcohol content is below the legal limit, your coordination is off, your eyesight and hearing don’t function as well, and you just can’t focus your attention on multiple tasks at once,” Schmuhl said.
“Science is science. You’re putting yourself at risk.”
Schmuhl also reminded the audience of the Indiana Lifeline Law, IU’s rules on student drinking and the required online safety class for IU freshmen.
About 30 people attended the panel. Most were parents, and some brought their children with them.
Bloomington resident Kim Cox said she thought the information was important for her 14-year-old daughter, Destiny, to hear.
“I’ve heard most of this stuff before, but I still think the subject is important,” Destiny said.
“When you see people driving badly on the weekends, you sometimes wonder if they’re sober. I think it’s better to learn that it’s a problem out there sooner rather than later.”
Students who knew Miller have been finding ways like this panel to honor her memory since her death, Gasana said.
Miller’s high school’s volleyball team made shirts with her name on it, and the LEAD program plans to find other ways to remember her as well, Gasana said.
“It was so weird to see her running around here and then find out she was dead,” Gasana said. “It could have been any of us standing here right now. I want my friends to be safe, and so I’m glad we could try to teach people about this.”
