Students Hear How Drinking Schoolmates Died : Mothers Bring Sobering Message

When a speaker from an anti-drug abuse agency reminded students at Canyon High School that summer usually means beach parties and “getting high and going dancing,” he drew whoops, cheers and giggles.

But the students’ frivolous mood at the school year’s final assembly abruptly turned serious when they heard from two mothers of schoolmates killed in drunk-driving accidents.

Carrying a poster bearing a prom night picture of her son and his date, Karen Heilman, 37, had an urgent message for the students in the Santa Clarita Valley community of Canyon Country.

“Let this be a lesson to you that death is here, and you can bring it on by drinking and driving,” Heilman told the suddenly transfixed students.

Her son, Joe Crawford, 18, died in March, slightly more than two weeks after he lost control of his car on Sierra Highway, was thrown from the vehicle and run over by another auto. Blood tests showed he was drunk.

Less than a year earlier, Laura Strickland, 17, who had been Joe Crawford’s prom night date, died when the car she was driving flipped several times on a winding road, killing her instantly. She, too, had been drinking, tests revealed.

“I know a lot of you are looking forward to graduating, but if you knew these two people, then you haven’t graduated if you haven’t learned from their mistakes,” Heilman told the students.

‘Learned the Hard Way’

Laura’s mother, Micki Strickland, 41, also addressed the assembly, telling the students:

“Alcohol makes you think you’re indestructible. Laura learned the hard way that she was not.”

The women spoke briefly, in straightforward, non-emotional tones.

But they had many students in the audience wiping tears or staring intently at these living reminders of what drinking and driving had done to their schoolmates.

At the conclusion of their talks, the students gave the women a hearty ovation, and many approached them afterwards with hugs and thanks.

In an interview after the program, Heilman and Strickland said they had decided to try to lessen their own grief by carrying a message to teen-agers. The idea was born when Heilman held up a picture of the young couple at Crawford’s funeral to make the students attending think about the consequences of drinking and driving.

Strickland said Laura’s death at first seemed to have some effect on her friends, many of whom said they had stopped drinking or smoking marijuana.

But, two months after her daughter’s accident, “I heard that they were into drinking and drugs again.

“It was like Laura died twice. I felt like Laura had died in vain. I sat down at her grave and just cried,” Strickland added.

After Joe Crawford died, Strickland and Heilman decided to try to do something to try to reach other teen-agers.

They made plans to address school groups and put up posters and other warnings.

About 600 posters of the couple in their prom attire have been placed in stores and shops all over the Santa Clarita Valley and in other communities. A small billboard with the picture of the couple and a warning not to drink and drive stands on Soledad Canyon Boulevard.

Strickland said she hoped to take her message to area elementary schools and PTAs during the coming school year.

In introducing the pair at a second session, Principal William White, blinking back tears, called the mothers’ talks “one of the gutsiest things I’ve ever seen. This is an example of how we suffer when you guys screw up.”