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Checking for a pulse, Gabriel Bradley ’26 practices recognizing symptoms for opioid overdose. The Emergency Medical Services (EMS) workers allowed each student to practice taking the proper steps on a mannequin, such as listening for breathing and checking for pinpoint pupils.
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Placing a piece on the top of the tower, Dorothy Douglas ’27 plays Jenga while wearing impairment goggles. One of the stations of the event included field games, basketball, and board games that required balance and precision.
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Watched by peers and an EMS professional, Enyao Zhang ’27 practices the process of administering Narcan on a mannequin. For practice purposes, the students only administered water, but learned how to apply the information to a real opioid overdose emergency.
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Wearing impairment goggles, Hudson Radcliff ’26 attempts the golf cart driving course. The cones were set up in a curving path, making it difficult to maneuver through with the impaired coordination.
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Leaning off-balance, Vishnu Mahadasu ’26 attempts the walk-and-turn field sobriety test. The test required students to take nine heel-to-toe steps, turn around, and walk back, all while counting their steps and remaining balanced.
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In a line, Lucy Gonzalez ’27, Ariana Fresques ’26, Dorothy Douglas ’27, and Sterling Vaughn ’27 attempt the walk-and-turn field sobriety test. Students found the task to be much more difficult while wearing the goggles than without.
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Halfway through the course, Ariana Fresques ’26 attempts to steer the golf cart away from cones. Different impairment goggles offered students a choice of how disoriented their vision would be while driving the cart.
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Motioning to a teammate, Landeyn Vallery ’26 dribbles a basketball while wearing impairment goggles. Many students attempted skills such as basketball on the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) pad, finding it much more difficult when wearing the goggles.
Nervous laughter and shouts of surprise echoed around the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) pad on Monday, April 6, and Tuesday, April 7, as Forensics students attempted various challenges wearing impairment goggles, which simulate the visual effects of alcohol or drug intoxication.
Participating in the annual Alcohol and Drug Awareness Day, students in Forensics class periods rotated through different activity stations. Each station was designed for students to experience the dangers of alcohol and drug consumption firsthand, empowering them to make life-saving choices in the future.
“[The] activities show students how drugs and alcohol can impact every part of your daily life, making it unsafe to do things like driving,” Forensics teacher Avni Kantawala said.
Stations were led by industry professionals, including detectives from the Austin Police Department (APD) and workers from the Emergency Medical Service (EMS). Students learned to recognize the signs of opioid overdose and administer Narcan, an over-the-counter nasal spray and the most widely used form of naloxone, that quickly reverses the effects of opioids to save a person’s life. Students also asked questions about any aspect of EMS, hearing stories about the fatal consequences of drunk driving and drug use.
“Having the professionals [here] shows that this is how it is in the real world,” Ms. Kantawala said. “These are people who deal with these issues every single day as a part of their job. Getting that firsthand experience is really important because they are the experts in the field, and sharing that with students is really impactful.”
At other stations, APD detectives demonstrated mock traffic stops and discussed safe driving practices. They also ran field sobriety tests, a series of physical and cognitive tasks used by law enforcement to tell whether a person is intoxicated or cognitively impaired enough to be considered unfit to drive. Students completed each test with and without the impairment goggles to compare their results.
“We’re showing them without the impairment goggles first to show how simple these tasks are, but then when they put the goggles on, it becomes different,” APD Detective Ron Giachetti said.
Two of the tests were divided attention tasks, simultaneously challenging students’ balance and instruction processing abilities; one required students to walk in a straight line heel-to-toe while counting their steps, and the other required balancing on one foot with arms by their sides. A third test required students to quickly spin in a circle to become dizzy, then follow the detective’s pen with their eyes. This simulated the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test, which allows officers to look for involuntary eye jerking that results from alcohol impairment.
“If you’re driving, you have to have good vision,” Detective Giachetti said. “If your eyes are skipping when you’re looking around, you’re going to miss things, and that’s what’s going to cause you to veer off the road or hit a curb, a person, or a car. Since 2000, we’ve [never] had a day without at least one fatality in Texas. We’re showing them that alcohol and other substances, such as medications or illegal drugs, can impair the way they feel and the way they drive, and if you feel differently, you’re going to drive differently.”
One of the most anticipated activities of the day allowed students to drive a golf cart through a short course of traffic cones while wearing impairment goggles. Participants chose between various goggles simulating the effects of different blood alcohol content levels. While driving the cart on the course, hitting a cone represented hitting a person in real life, serving as an important reminder about the devastating consequences of drunk driving.
“It was really crazy. I felt like I was about to fall out of the golf cart,” Ariana Fresques ‘26 said. “You hit things [because] you think you’re going straight, but you’re not.”
After learning about the risks of alcohol and drug use, Forensics students could see how these substances can impact their abilities and safety. As end-of-year celebrations such as Prom approach, this event served as an important reminder that students are encouraged to carefully consider their choices to preserve not only their own safety, but also the safety of others around them.
“We all know that nobody’s perfect,” Detective Giachetti said. “If you’re going to drink or do an illegal substance, have a plan before, because you don’t want to make that plan when you’re drunk or impaired. Have that plan before [of] how you’re going to get home.”
