The Great Race… at School

Does that sound famil­iar? If you’re a teen cur­rently attend­ing high school in the sub­urbs, there’s a good chance that it does. Run out the door right after last bell, jump into the driver’s seat, shove the key into the engine, fly past your teachers—who may likely be rolling their eyes at this point— and laugh at your squeal­ing tires as you speed out of the park­ing lot, deter­mined to get out first. Or, per­haps you’ve heard of lunch races—racing away from the school and see­ing how far you can go and still get back before the bell rings.

It may seem like fun, espe­cially as you get to soak up the atten­tion of eager spec­ta­tors who laugh, scream, and applaud dar­ing moves; how­ever, these races have also led to some of the most idi­otic crashes recorded in the his­tory of teen crashes. Crash­ing on the high­way? All the time. Crash­ing into lamp posts? Nor­mal. Crash­ing right under the nose of your chem­istry teacher just in front of the school? …

Really, that’s not cool. Not only do you get in heaps of trou­ble and a “stu­pid­ity” label at school, but you also tend to lose respect amongst the rest of the town population—the major­ity of whom are not teenagers who can under­stand the adren­a­line rush and thrill of dare-devil moves. Oh, and your par­ents will not be happy with the rise in your insurance—which you may very likely find your­self hav­ing to pitch in on.

Your school park­ing lots are crowded, and if you’re rac­ing away from such a cramped space, there’s a very likely chance of crashing—whether into another racer, a poor inno­cent pedes­trian, or just the curb. So, per­haps you may want to take sec­ond thoughts about those school races?