BY BRITNEE NAVE

Star Correspondent

Unaka High School students were able to participate in ”Cinema Drive” in their gymnasium on Tuesday.

The program is an Interactive Safe Driving Experience sponsored by the Tennessee Highway Safety Office. The program is provided free of charge to the first 25 schools throughout Tennessee to participate. Funding for the program is provided through a grant, which fully covers all screening costs to the school. Unaka and Elizabethton High Schools were the only two in this region to be selected.

Students entering the gym were given 3D glasses and a remote to participate in the interactive screening. At the beginning of the program, students answered questions about their age, gender and opinions on topics like drinking and driving. Afterwards, they were given scenarios of the dangers of things like driving under the influence, texting while driving and more.

One such story was that of a group of friends who were in an accident after drinking and driving. The story was told from the point of view of each person. After the story concluded, it was revealed this was a true story.

After the 3D video, students saw two more videos before another survey and games to show how much they learned.

Issac Marshall, program host and technician for Mobile Cinema Park Technology, said that the information from the before and after surveys of what students think are collected. The main goal of the program is to teach.

According to Wes Wright, the school’s assistant principal, there hasn’t been anything like this at the school before.

“In the past, the Tennessee Highway Patrol has been here with drunk driving goggles and stuff, but never anything like this,” he said.

According to Marshall, the experience was well received by students who actively participated and had fun.

According to “Cinema Drive,” 18 percent of students who are at risk for dangerous driving behaviors are likely to change after this experience.

After the program, students are also invited to participate in an app that has a 3-week game that focuses on information learned during the experience.

“It’s real life situations,” said Betsy Oliver, principal of Unaka High School. “It doesn’t just talk about drunk driving, but also fatigue driving, which many of our students will face in their lifetime, and also texting and driving, which we all know is a problem. It shows common things we all do, and hopefully seeing this will show them not to do it anymore.”