By: Taylor Christensen | Royal Oak Review | Published May 4, 2026
ROYAL OAK — Shrine Catholic High School sophomores had the opportunity last week to learn from first responders, a prosecutor and victims about the dangers of drunken and distracted driving.
On April 29, the sophomores participated in the 10th annual Drinking and Distracted Teen Driving Day, hearing the stories of those in attendance as well as having hands-on activities to show them the dangers of distracted driving.
Students began the day listening to testimonials from first responders sharing their stories, starting with Shrine’s very own staff member Dr. Sandra Kelly, high school counselor; Royal Oak Police Department officer Jacob Gostiaux, Royal Oak Fire Department member Greg Vick, EMS coordinator Joseph Marcero, Shrine alumnus and Oakland County Prosecutor John O’Brien, and State Farm’s David Arce.
The presentations included graphic images of crash victims on the roads and also in the hospital. Arce also spoke about his own personal experience with a Shrine classmate, J. Patrick Dineen, Class of 1985, who tragically passed away in a drunken driving incident in 1983.
Dineen was involved in an accident with other Shrine High School students, where the driver of the vehicle was drunk. Arce said that Dineen was hanging out of the window of the car when it hit a curb and flipped over, killing Dineen. The others survived.
“I think it’s natural for teenagers to believe that they are invincible or to believe that these things won’t happen to them,” said Sarah Cerone, principal of Shrine High School. “So, some of these graphic images, and they shake me every year, it does change you. The goal of that is to be real and to treat the students as adults and have them see the real effects of what even a small decision can do to a life and do to a person.”
Gostiaux spoke to the students about the process of when the police arrive at the scene of an accident while recounting real life scenarios that he witnessed and helped as an officer.
“Normally, if I pull someone over after one of these presentations, they’ll say, ‘Aren’t you the officer from the distracted driving?’ I think it’s actually kind of nice, because I think it’s a refresher, not only for them when they are sitting here, but then when they see me on the road, it’s like a light clicks on,” Gostiaux said. “Bringing awareness to the kids of how bad of a driver they really can be will help them to be a little bit more careful and more conscious.”
The students also got to go outside to use golf carts with “fatal vision goggles”; to take a field sobriety test; to go through a distracted driving simulator; to experience the Jaws of Life, and to have a Q&A session with first responders.
“The kids definitely enjoy the activities outside, because it’s a hands-on and kind of fun way to learn about the different aspects of the different presenters that were there,” Cerone said. “But the things that seemed to affect them the most are the victim impacts, and the gentleman (Jason Waldron) that spoke with the Mothers Against Drunk Driving, who shared about losing his entire family. … I mean, that had a tremendous impact on them.”
Waldron was the sole survivor of a drunken driving car crash in 1980, when he was 10 years old. Waldron’s father, Dean; stepmother Sherry and both of his brothers, Adrian, 12, and Shane, 4, were killed in the crash.
Waldron has been speaking with Mothers Against Drunk Driving for around six years and said that sharing his story brings purpose to the tragedy that he went through.
“It brings my family back to life. And second of all, no kid should have to go through what I went through. And the more I speak, with their four voices behind me, of my family, the more I am going to, because even if one child listens, that is important,” Waldron said. “Kids need to understand the ramifications of actions, and in this day and age, kids are drinking earlier, they are doing drugs earlier and they need to know what goes hand in hand with them.”
Cerone said that the distracted driving day would not be possible without the assistance of local law enforcement and those willing to tell their story.
“We are so grateful that all of these people are willing to come together for us in one day. There’s some really incredible people from first responders, nurses, all the way to the legal profession,” she said. “It’s wonderful that they are willing to support the students and help them make good choices.”
For more information on Shrine Catholic Schools, visit shrineschools.com.