by Catie Nadler

The campus at Woodbridge High School has lately been turned into a film production of sorts with the advent of the U Got Brains contest to promote safe driving.

Over the summer, Ms. Burke attended a presentation at Westfield High School for U Got Brains. “[It’s an] organization from the Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey that [brings]  together the students and schools and builds a culture of teen driving safety.” said Ms. Burke.

With the help of Mr. Lottman and Mr. Connelly, Ms. Burke brought U Got Brains to WHS. She, Mr. Clarke and Ms. Small, selected 10th, 11th, and 12th graders who have been in their driver’s education classes to participate and appear in the video, or help behind the scenes.

Earlier in the year, WHS submitted their proposal to make a video about the topic, “Focus or Fail,” to U Got Brains. WHS became a champion school, and received a $1,000 check in order to get the message out to the community, and for a chance to compete against various other schools to win a simulator for the driver’s education classes.

Students don’t recognize the importance of driving free from distractions. “Sometimes kids won’t listen to adults; they won’t listen to their parents; they won’t listen to anyone else, but their friends are a big part of them at this point in their lives,” Ms. Burke said.

It has become apparent to some of the students at WHS that distracted driving can be solved simply by paying attention. “Just pay attention when you’re driving. All the different things we have, like ‘keep your eyes on the road,’ ‘don’t drive distracted,’ ‘don’t drive drunk’—that’s just pay[ing] attention,” said junior TJ Wagner, who wrote the script for the video.

Junior Katie Forbes who did the makeup for the video said, “If you drive distracted, it doesn’t only affect you. You can hurt someone else or if you get hurt while you’re driving, it’ll affect your family and friends. […] if you get into a car accident and hurt someone else, it’s [going to] affect them, it’s [going to] affect their family, it’s [going to] affect you for the rest of your life.”

The faculty has experienced excellent reception about the video from the students participating. “It’s student-driven to start with, but each day they come with new ideas,” Mr. Clarke said.

In fact, many students wished that they had heard about the opportunity a bit sooner.  “I think we should have gotten the word out more,” said junior Carly Deliman, the video’s director, “because a lot of people that weren’t recommended to do it really wanted to be in it and they didn’t know about it until we told them we were filming.”

The “Focus or Fail” video will be filmed throughout the rest of the school year on location at Woodbridge High. The video will be finished in May, and the entire community will have the opportunity to vote for it as the winner as the school vies for a new simulator.

Ms. Burke would like to thank Mr. Lottmann, Mr. Connelly, and Mr. Hasan for giving the school the opportunity to participate in U Got Brains, and everyone involved in helping to make the video, including the AV and Art Departments.