Schools

State Teachers Union Joins Anti-Texting Campaign

The CEA gets on board a national two-week effort to end texting while driving "because saving lives is a responsibility we all share." A traveling program will visit schools in East Hartford, Manchester, Middletown and Durham over the next week.

The Connecticut Education Association has joined the national campaign to put an end to texting while driving.

Texting while driving is a deadly habit that makes a driver 23 times more likely to be involved in a crash. The two-week campaign focuses on educating Connecticut high school students and the general public about the dangers of distracted driving, and it urges everyone to sign a pledge to never text and drive.

While awareness of the dangers of texting and driving has increased, people—especially teens—are still doing it. With this expanded effort, and getting into our schools, CEA hopes to educate students and change their behaviors in order to help save lives.

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“As teachers, we care about the well-being of our students, and we want to educate them on the dangers of texting and driving," CEA President Sheila Cohen said. "This campaign will promote the education of responsible driving behavior to teens and impress on them the importance of driving safely without distractions to keep them and others on the road safe from harm

"Raising awareness and educating students about this preventable tragedy are key to saving them.”

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The campaign kicked off with a press conference Thursday at TheaterWorks in Hartford, proclaiming that day as no-texting and driving day. CEA joined Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Attorney General George Jepsen, members of the Connecticut Departments of Transportation and Motor Vehicles, AFT-CT, and corporate sponsors at the event to raise awareness of the dangers, and encourage everyone to immediately take the pledge against texting and driving at www.itcanwait.com.

The program will visit schools in East Hartford, Manchester, Middletown, and Durham over the next week and will include:

  • A teen distracted driving video contest
  • A long-range awareness campaign to bring a distracted driving program to all high schools within the state
  • Showing AT&T’s new documentary “From One Second to the Next,” directed by acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog. The documentary focuses on the aftermath of texting and driving told through the stories of people whose one second of inattention caused fatal crashes—delivering the message—no text is worth a life. The documentary, which will be distributed to more than 40,000 schools, already has more than two million hits on YouTube.

"Teachers are committed to making a lasting difference in our students' lives, and usually we focus on personal and academic growth and achievement, but nothing is more important than student safety. And we are committed to the program to help save the lives of our students,” said Cohen.

CEA is proud to be part of the It Can Wait campaign and encourages everyone to make a commitment to always drive focused and free from any distractions.

— Information from the Connecticut Education Association


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