As a police officer tried to pull her away, Escalon High School junior Brooklyn Dugo resisted, desperately holding on to the hand of her friend Arianna Velasco, who was pulled from the wreckage of a DUI accident staged along Escalon-Bellota Road for the Every 15 Minutes program.

The staged drama unfolded in real time on Thursday, March 12 with police, fire and ambulance crews all responding to the scene.

Velasco, unresponsive on scene, was having CPR performed on her by first responders as Dugo tearfully was pulled away.

“I just want to say goodbye!” she shrieked at the officer.

From the sounds of skidding tires to metal crashing into metal, and with tarps then pulled off the cars to reveal the horrific scene, juniors and seniors from Escalon and Vista high schools were in the stands set up inside the school grounds to look out on the roadway.

Hosted every two years, the program brings together a cross section of the student body to take part, with several involved in the accident scene itself and others taking roles of the Living Dead, all portraying the grim reality of a fatal DUI collision.

For the 2026 edition, students involved in the crash included DUI driver Logan Huebner with passengers Ben Ferreira, Brooklyn Dugo and Claire Underwood; Huebner’s vehicle crashing into one driven by Skylar Anderson with passengers Rylan Koops, Ben Gonzalez and Arianna Velasco. Every 15 minutes, someone is killed or seriously injured in a DUI-related crash.

It’s a chaotic scene – exactly how it is intended to be – as students not seriously hurt check on their friends and begin to realize the severity of the situation.

For Huebner, who had been partying with his passengers at a home in the rural area outside of town prior to the crash, he could only watch helplessly as emergency responders arriving on scene tried to help some of the victims.

Rylan Koops was declared deceased on scene, flung through the front windshield of Anderson’s car on impact. Velasco was a back seat passenger and sustained injuries that would prove to be fatal; she left the scene in an ambulance after CPR was performed. Anderson had injuries that also required a trip to the hospital and Ferreira, who was trapped in the back seat of Huebner’s vehicle, had to be extricated using the Jaws of Life tool. He was paralyzed from the waist down as a result of the crash.

Huebner, Gonzalez, Dugo and Underwood all had relatively minor injuries – physically – but the emotional damage went far beyond that.

While the scene on the street was unfolding, retired San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Deputy Chris Stevens, a veteran of the E15 Minutes program, provided some narration for the crowd, indicating what was going on before them and discussing the ‘golden hour’ that can determine if a seriously injured patient lives or dies – getting to a hospital within that time frame often makes the difference.

For Koops, who was removed from the vehicle and placed on the street, then covered with a sheet, being part of the program was surreal, as he could only listen to what was going on around him.

“It was all audio right away when the scene started, it was super chaotic,” Koops said. “The screams and everything I heard, it was just, it was terrible. I think everyone did a great job showing the realism of these events, how they do occur and how they do happen.”

He added that knowing this could be a reality drives the point home of making sure friends and classmates have a plan to get home safely.

“Hearing the cries of the people in the audience, my classmates and students, just watching the situation unfold, it was heartwarming to know they cared but if something like this were to happen, I know our whole community would be devastated,” Koops explained. “And so I pray that this would never happen and programs like E15 really do sit with people and resonate that they would just be able to make smart decisions in those moments and, regardless of the situation, that they would be able to protect themselves and keep those around them safe.”

The crash scene response saw Ferreira leave the scene via helicopter, which touched down just across the street as the Living Dead and the Grim Reaper looked on; Koops – after being examined by the county coroner – was placed in the back of a hearse and was driven off, with the Living Dead following behind. Velasco left via ambulance and was later declared deceased at the hospital.

Huebner, who was given a field sobriety test and registered a high blood alcohol content, well above the legal limit, was taken from the scene in handcuffs; he was later placed on trial in the deaths of Koops and Velasco, sentenced to decades in state prison.

Thursday featured the crash scene while Friday’s assembly included several guest speakers, a video of the scene and then following the victims and Huebner on the next steps in the process, as well as parents and the student victims reading letters written in the wake of the tragedy.

Junior Brooklyn Dugo admitted she was surprised at the emotional reaction she had at the scene.

“Before seeing Ari’s face and Rylan all banged up, I didn’t think the emotions would hit me so hard but they did,” Dugo said.

She was the student who made the 9-1-1 call to get responders to the scene.

“I was automatically worried about Ari and as we were sitting on the curb, Claire (Underwood) was next to me and I could feel her hand on my back and feel her comforting me,” Dugo added.

She also said the second part of the program on Friday, hearing from a number of speakers about how their lives were impacted by drivers under the influence, just brought the point into sharper focus.

“Seeing the lives that got affected and hearing all the speakers, I just hope that everyone knows and I now know that it’s never going to be worth the chance, it’s never going to be worth taking that risk … playing ‘dead’ you realize that you’re taking everything for granted and it means so much to finally come back and be able to see family.”

One of the Living Dead was Chase Cummings, who said he was proud to be asked to take part and the program was definitely hard hitting.

“Acting it out is one thing but hearing from people who have actually been through it and affected by it, that’s a whole different thing. It also opened up my eyes to how stressful it can be for first responders; if it’s impacting us hearing about it, imagine showing up on that scene, having to just push all your emotions down and help that person on their worst day, ”Cummings shared.

For Madelyn Fahey, who was one of the students who read a letter she wrote to her parents when she was ‘dead’, the program was impactful. She was one of the Living Dead that surrounded the crash scene on Thursday.

“Being part of the Living Dead was definitely a very stressful and emotional process. Even though we weren’t in the crash scene we had to watch and experience the whole thing and there were just a lot of hard emotions. It was definitely harder than I thought it would be,” Fahey said, adding that she hopes students take the message to heart and realize that they have to look out for each other, encouraging fellow classmates to make wise choices.

Students taking part represented both Escalon and Vista high schools and included Brianne Coelho, Brien Novetzke, Jacqueline Aguayo, Gracie Airola, Skylar Anderson, Hayden Castro, Luca Cerasi, Chase Cummings, Yazmin Castro, Ben Ferreira, Madelyn Fahey, Ben Gonzalez, Logan Huebmer, Rylan Koops, Bailey Schultz, Claire Underwood, Diego Arizmendi, Mia Bracamontes, Quetzaly “Victoria” Calderon, Leonidas Carrillo, K’Oz Castro, Ava Caton, Brooklyn Dugo, Ivan Lopez and Arianna Velasco.

Coordinator Ryann Smith said several businesses, individuals, groups and organizations stepped up with a variety of donations, in addition to the many fire, ambulance, police, CHP, and sheriff’s department personnel taking part and she offered a special word of thanks to the Escalon Unified School District and school board, which provided some much-needed funding to make sure the program took place as scheduled.