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A horrific scene unfolded in a parking lot behind Concordia Lutheran High School, April 16, as crunched metal, pieces of cars and bodies lay sprawled across the pavement. Fortunately the scene was staged, but for many it looked all too real.

Shattered Lives of Tomball staged its annual mock, multi-victim crash scene for students and family of the high school, to bring awareness about drunk driving. "Victims" are either pronounced dead at the scene or transported by both helicopter and ambulance to Tomball Regional Hospital. "Perpetrators" are then transported to jail to face consequences for "driving drunk".

"We try to make it as realistic as possible," said Shattered Lives co-director Kim Garrett. "We go to great lengths to put this presentation on."

After the program, students are transported to an off-location retreat for the rest of the day, where they have no communication with the outside world.

"It's an actual deal with the result of they didn't come home from school, come home from practice, in order to make it real," Garrett said. "They can't call and tell people hey, I'm really ok."

The next day the students participated in a mock memorial service at Concordia Lutheran, where the entire student body sees a video that shows footage from scenes of the crash, hospital and the Tomball jail.

Tomball Police, Tomball Fire and Northwest EMS actually respond to the scene and work it as a real accident, providing training for the departments as well.

"It shows that the coordination between the agencies is like a symphony," Tomball Police Chief Robert Hauck said. "There are a lot of moving parts."

Beyond that, Hauck said the program provides a very inportant and humbling experience for participants.

"It's important because it heightens awareness of driving under the influence for both students and parents," he said. "It's a demonstration about how tragic the loss of life really is, especially when it is due to the poor decisions of others."

Tomball Fire Chief Randy Parr agreed.

"It shows how dire the consequences of one bad decision can be," he said.

Tomball Regional Hospital also uses the program as an active training event, as the "victims" are brought into their emergency room, overloading them with multiple trauma victims at one time.

"This is an opportunity for multi-agency cooperation to test our response with EMS providers in a mass casualty situation, so that we can better serve our providers," said Tomball Regional's emergency room director Michelle Henderson.

Parents have to travel to the emergency room and actually watch the doctors and nurses attempt to save their children. Many of them had to watch, as the decision was made to stop treatment and their children were pronounced "dead".

"It was a very real and sobering experience," said Pat Harrison, whose daughter Tess played a victim. "It kind of put everything into perspective."

Harrison said the message was well received among his daughter and her friends.

"I think the message is very well received," he said. "I had a discussion with my daughter and some of her friends about it and the entire experience was emotional."

The students that participated agreed.

"It was really realistic to be honest," said Concordia Lutheran senior Jay Stracke. "It was heartbreaking. I could hear my parents crying and I realized how easily life can be taken from you."

Senior Lauren Soule made a plea for people to think about others before making the choice to drink and drive.

"I'd like to tell people to think twice the next time," she said. "It will have an impact on people who do not want to be a part of your choices and it's not fair to them or their families."

For a photo gallery of this event, please visit our Flickr page.

The National Lutheran School Accreditation (NLSA) commission recently selected nine Lutheran schools in the United States for special recognition as "exemplary accredited schools."  Concor-dia Lutheran High School in Tomball was one of the nine schools to receive this tremendous honor.

All nine schools received NLSA accreditation last August – preliminary to their being named exemplary schools for recognition during the 2013-14 academic year.

"These schools demonstrated compliance with NLSA accreditation criteria that exceeded expectations related to the educational and ministry standards required for accredited schools, explained NLSA Director Terry Schmidt, who also is the Director of School Ministry with the Office of National Mission. 

"In addition," Schmidt said, "each school demonstrated innovative leadership through the implementation of NLSA best practices related to the academic quality and spiritual development of its students.

Schmidt added. "In the current 2012-13 academic year, the leaders of these schools will now be required to intentionally share their best practices through print articles and webinars prepared for potential use by other Lutheran schools. Sharing Best Practices provides opportunities and ideas that have the potential to improve all of our schools."

National Lutheran School Accreditation, based in St Louis, encourages and recognizes schools that provide quality Christian education and engage in continuous improvement.  NLSA accredits 694 Lutheran schools that have chosen to undergo vigorous self-study and evaluation. Currently, there are more than 2,300 Lutheran preschools, elementary schools and high schools in the United States.

Concordia Lutheran High School's Golf Team had a number of all-District honor recipients this season.  Pictured are the members of the team (from left) Coach Honeck, Tommy Vicknair, Clint Walkup, Austen Christiansen, Sam Schroeder and Jordan Noack. Noack, Schroeder and Vicnair were all named all-District. Walkup received the Crusader Award, coming in second place at the District Tournament and also earning all-District honors. Sophomore, Austen Christiansen, came in second at the 5A State Tournament and received all-State Honors.

The Teacher of the Month, sponsored by Element Payment Services and Classic Hair, was recognized at the Greater Tomball Chamber of Commerce First Friday Networking recently. January’s Teacher of the Month is Jeff Kroemer of Concordia Lutheran High School. Pictured are (from left) are Sandy Krug of Classic Hair, Leo Corley of Element Payment Service, Kroemer and Concordia Principal Mark Bahr.