By Andy Sevilla.
With desperation in her eyes and tears rolling down her face, Stacy Bryan stood in shock, quiet, as her daughter lay on a hospital bed, lifeless.
Moments before, a Seton Medical doctor warned the mother that her daughter was a victim in an alcohol-related accident, and despite medic’s best efforts, the Hays High senior succumbed to fatal injuries caused by a drunk driver.
The vehicular accident was a reenactment of a tragic tale many parents are faced with all too often. Hays CISD, in conjunction with local law enforcement, put on the event, known as Shattered Dreams, to teach students of the perils of drinking and driving.
Stacey Bryan watching her daughter, Ember, at Seton Medical Center Hays following the Shattered Dreams mock drunk driving accident on Thursday. Bryan said while she knew it was not real, it was still upsetting to see her child that way. The Hays High senior portrayed an accident victim who succumbed to her injuries.(Photos by Andy Sevilla) |
Stacy Bryan’s reaction – all the while knowing her teenage daughter, Ember Bryan, wasn’t really dead – was real.
“Even knowing (the accident and death are) fake, when a real doctor looks – I didn’t think it would be this hard – when a real doctor looks you in the eyes and tells you that your daughter has been in an accident and passed away … it really hits home, what could happen and how devastating it would be,” Bryan said, her voice breaking with emotion. “And then you have to look at your daughter lying there.”
Stacy Bryan’s daughter, Ember, was one of three girls that was “killed” last week in the Shattered Dreams program. Fighting for her life, she was flown by helicopter to Seton Medical Center where she later died, as part of the reenactment.
“Going through this – and knowing it’s not real – I can’t imagine, I just can’t imagine losing my daughter, especially to something that I know could have been prevented,” Bryan said.
The mother of two said this scene is something she worries about often. She said that though the case involving her daughter wasn’t an actual tragedy, the matter remains “a very real issue that we have discussed very openly.”
“My daughter is a teenager and she is driving. We’ve had some incidences already and we talked very openly about decisions she makes and people she hangs with, and what her friends are doing.”
Though Ember will be going to college next year, her mom said, “You’re never done being a parent.”
Bryan said she has advised her daughter to always let someone know where she is, what she is doing and to be honest and responsible about her decisions.
The two other girls who died in the reenacted accident – Cari Montemayor and Skyler Sanders – said the experience was very emotional for them and served as a cautionary tale.
“It makes me open my eyes a little bit more,” Montemayor said. “It’s something that a lot of people my age are doing, I guess, and so it’s just weird to think that any day that this could really be me or it could really be one of my friends.”
She said she couldn’t even imagine putting her “family in that situation, in that kind of pain.”
Sanders had a warning for her peers: “Think before you do something.”
“Just lying there and hearing everyone talking around you and hearing what they’re saying, and hearing people kind of sobbing, it shows me how this impacts everyone around you, not just yourself, with your decisions,” Sanders said.
Life is fragile, Montemayor said, one mistake “can really mess everything up.”
“You really need to just look at what’s ahead versus what you’re doing right now,” she said. “It might seem fun right now, but two years down the road you didn’t need to do this dumb thing in high school.”
