Junior Brady Franklin walked out of his Blue Three Physics class on Friday, April 18 while resource officer Maurice Loridon announced that Franklin had been killed in a drunk driving accident. The Grim Reaper led Franklin into the hallway and when he returned, his face had white powder and a painted tear drop on it.

Franklin was one of 23 students pulled out of class by JagPRIDE to represent that someone dies every 15 minutes from distracted driving. This event accompanied National Distracted Driving Awareness Week.

“It was like attention was pulled to [me] and everyone was looking at [me],” Franklin said. “They all had questions but I couldn’t them because I wasn’t supposed to talk.”

Taylor said JagPRIDE hoped to bring the reality of tragic accidents to students.

“We just wanted everyone to know that it actually happens,” junior JagPRIDE member Abby Taylor said. “We were trying to make it impactful.”

Taylor said students reacted to their classmates being pulled out to metaphorically “die.”

“Some people were laughing when [their classmates] got pulled out,” Taylor said. “When they came back in if they were doing what they were supposed to it was quiet and impactful.”