Conard Students Take Second Place for PSA About Distracted Driving

Article submitted by Simsbury Public Schools

On April 9 at 3 p.m., Simsbury High School’s Technology Education wing was the scene for some stiff competition from filmmakers in grades 9-12 on two vital topics – anti-bullying and driving while distracted.

Sponsored by the Hartford Area Cable Television Advisory Council (HACTAC), the video contest attracted teams of students from six towns—Simsbury, West Hartford, Bloomfield, Windsor, East Hartford, and Hartford public and private schools—who submitted public service announcement (PSA) videos.

The entries were judged by Simsbury Chief of Police Peter Ingvertsen, Bob Maxon from NBC 30, and Doug Stewart from Fox 61 News.

Simsbury High School Technology Education teacher Mark G. Harutunian coordinated the video contest, including collecting the entries, which were based on the criteria of overall impact, originality, memorable content and delivery, relevance and clarity of message, and creativity and technical merit.

The challenge of the contest was to convey information on a choice of two very serious topics in no less than 30 and no more than 60 seconds. Some of the videos employed the impact of sound, visuals of terrible car crash clips, text, or simple voiceover to convey their message.

The winning video artfully employed somber tones, both audio and visual, to show the impact of cyberbullying on a classmate, as narrated by a tear-streaked student. The challenge for the judges was to assess the merits of the videos and weigh the power of the message.

Commented Judge Stewart, who has performed as a judge at the level of the Emmys, “At the end of the day, it’s how you tell the story, how you put the story together.”

The first place prize of an iPad went to Windsor High School’s Amber Johnson, Kaitlyn Ali, and Ciera Jade Henry for their video on cyberbullying. Second place, with a prize of $250 Apple iTunes gift card, went to West Hartford’s Conard High School for a distracted driving video by the team of Emily Yates, Alicia Beadle, and Olivia Proietti. Third place of a $100 iTunes gift card went to Simsbury High School senior James Martin, also for a distracted driving video.

The topic of distracted driving is especially important to Harutunian, who has recently begun working with state and local law enforcement to produce a Connecticut-based video on the dangers of texting while driving.

He stated that more people die each year from distracted driving than from drinking and driving.

Said Harutunian, “Every year before the prom I show my class [‘The Last Text,’ a 10-minute documentary by AT&T]. Last year I showed it to probably the noisiest freshman class I’ve ever had, and when I turned on the lights, two students were crying and there wasn’t a sound from the rest.”

As to why getting the message to his students about safe driving is so important to him, Harutunian said, “It’s always some other town – and then it’s not.”

Winning videos will be aired on the six towns’ Community Access Channels. HACTAC is a group of consumer advocates on behalf of cable subscribers and is a volunteer board mandated by the Connecticut State Legislature.

For more information, visit www.Hactac.org.