North Muskegon High School students get surprise visit from the 'Grim Reaper'
Updated May 11, 2011 ; Posted May 11, 2011
By Megan Hart | mhart2@mlive.com
Matt Gade | ChronicleThe Grim Reaper eyes an accident victim at North Muskegon High School Wednesday during the "Every 15 Minutes" program, an event staged to discourage drinking and driving.
Editor's note: This is the first part of a story that will run in Friday's Chronicle about North Muskegon High School trying to fight drunken driving in an unusual way. The complete story will run in Friday's Chronicle.
Students at North Muskegon High School who expected candy taped to their lockers Wednesday were in for an unpleasant surprise when a stranger in black robes started pulling students from their desks.
North Muskegon is hosting the "Every 15 Minutes" program to discourage drunken driving. The name comes from statistics that every 15 minutes one young person in the U.S. is killed in an alcohol-related crash.
Volunteer Debbie Alderink said the students knew something was up when she was in school Wednesday morning, because she also is on the planning committee for an all-night party held after graduation to discourage students from going to parties with alcohol. The committee members have been leaving students treats every month, she said.
"They think they're going to get another treat," she said.
Instead, the "Grim Reaper," played by two retired Muskegon County Sheriff's deputies, took a student from class every 15 minutes, from about 8 a.m. through 11:30 a.m. The "living dead" students later returned to class in black T-shirts and white face paint, and weren't allowed to speak for the rest of the day.
Some students seemed scared by the Reaper's presence in their classroom. One boy yelled "Oh my God" when the Reaper came for the freshman class president, and a girl not involved in the event thought she was being called to "death" too when the man in black got a little too close for comfort.
Many students laughed, though, and one imitated a mime in a box when he found out a "living dead" classmate wasn't allowed to speak for the rest of the day.
The Rev. Doug VanderMolen, who read obituaries for some of the "living dead" students, said he thought even the students who laughed were affected by the event.
"It's kind of a typical coping mechanism," he said. "It kind of gets them thinking. The challenge is most kids think they're indestructible."
Email: mhart@muskegonchronicle.com