News
Mohon
students participate in state driver education forum
Oct. 10
On Thursday, Oct. 2, five Mohonasen High School students, along with School Resource Officer Tom Culbert, attended a Conduct Community Forum on Driver Education. The event, held at Capital Region BOCES, was one of three such forums to be held this year by a state advisory panel on driver education availability and curriculum enhancement.
"Motor vehicle crashes are the number one cause of death for young people age 16-24. In 2006, more than 200 young drivers in New York State died in automobile crashes and more than 26,000 were injured," motor vehicles Commissioner David J. Swarts said in a press release about the event. "Working together with the state education department and others, we must develop new ways of educating young drivers that will help to eliminate unnecessary injuries and death on our highways."
This past summer, the state legislature created the advisory panel, which is co-chaired by Swarts and State Commissioner of Education Richard Mills, to examine the quality and availability of driver education in New York. The panel will assess and make recommendations to improve driver education and ensure that instruction is more available and developmentally appropriate.
Along with Culbert, students Brittany Heermance, Emily Dubuc, Erin Barnes, Joe Watroba and Maci Martell, worked with other teens, parents, educators, law enforcement and community members at the forum. They discussed topics such as technological advancements, driver education funding, proven methods for teaching students and current licensing requirements and restrictions on young drivers.
"The students picked up on many of the same points that the adults picked up on during the forum--that more education and more enforcement are important," Culbert said. "It's always great when we ask kids for their opinions, especially when it's on topics that affect them."
