Twice a month in Plymouth 612, students come together for meetings of the Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) club. The club, led by Plymouth video productions adviser Janet Sutherland, focuses on educating students about the dangers of risky behaviors including distracted driving, substance use and poor decision-making.
“I have been the SADD advisor since the fall of 1995 when two of my 10th grade students asked me if they could start a SADD club,” said Sutherland. “So they asked me and I said, ‘Sure we can start a SADD club,’ and I’m still doing it today.”
Every year, the club makes its main focus on one topic being a media campaign called Strive for a Safer Drive. “Most of our year is focused around the Strive for a Safe Drive media campaign,” Sutherland said.
This club is funded entirely by the Michigan Office of Highway Safety and Transportation, allowing the club to have impact without needing to do fundraisers to run the campaigns. “All the money we get is provided by the Michigan Office of Highway Safety, Transportation,” Sutherland said.
SADD’s vice president, Oona Landon, Salem junior, helps organize events and spread the club’s message. “Every time, we do a lot of different things. We made a bunch of commercials, we do bulletin boards, and put them up every month. And I just, I love getting involved with that type of stuff.”
(Oona Landon)
This year’s saying is, “Mind the Stripes,” using visual symbols to show the importance of safety. “We came up with the idea of Mind the Stripes using a tiger, and we thought about the crosswalks being a stripe. When you put on a seat belt, it’s a stripe,” said Sutherland.
The club also collaborates with the computer graphics and design classes to design posters. “The graphics art classes have a poster design competition, and they designed those. Kids submitted poster designs, and then we chose one to have our posters made,” said Sutherland.
Through events like lunchtime activities and simulations, students can see how being destructive can affect their lives. “We did two cafeteria events [this year]. And for the Salem one, I actually helped us run that,” said Landon. “We didn’t have anyone to help us out. So I had to go get another person for the driving simulator.”
The club is not just about awareness; it also helps students develop leadership and life skills. “I just set all that stuff up with her kind of gave me life, leadership experience,” Landon said.
Landon encourages others to join, “It’s not a hard club to make time for. It’s 15 minutes at seven in the morning, and you don’t even have to come every week.”
