Staged funeral warns VHS students about dangerous decisions

BY Colin Willard

ADVOCATE Staff Writer

cwillard@wardpub.com

VIENNA — Each spring, Vienna High School seniors walk across the gym stage as part of the school’s graduation ceremony.

Last Friday, about one month before the class of 2025 is set to cross the stage in their caps and gowns, the gym was dark with stage lights illuminating a sight none of the students wanted to consider: a casket representing the loss of one of their classmates.

VHS’s Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) club presented a two-part docudrama about the dangers of poor decision-making, especially surrounding intoxication. The club completed the demonstration with the assistance of the Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC), which receives grant funding to help local schools create immersive and educational experiences.

The docudrama program has the option for a handful of different scenarios. Last year, VHS students staged the live aftermath of a drunk driving crash with the help of local emergency responders.

This year’s performance came in two sections. Before the video began, VHS Principal Tim Metcalf advised students that seating was available in the back rows if they needed space to let out emotions, and counseling staff would be available to speak with them if needed.

The first section of the docudrama was an approximately 20-minute video depicting a party where students consumed alcohol. One of them passed out unattended. By the time others noticed that she was unconscious, she had suffered from alcohol poisoning and choked on vomit.

The students called for help, and first responders from the Maries-Osage Ambulance District and Vienna Police Department arrived on the scene to help. They loaded the girl into an ambulance and tried to revive her, but they could not save her life. VPD arrested the adult who supplied the youth with alcohol.

Once the short film ended, the SADD members, dressed in all black, took to the stage and filed into rows of chairs. The curtains parted to reveal the casket and podium set up for speeches. Thunder crashed from the storm outside, and a classmate read a eulogy for Lily Grace Walker, the junior class president and Vienna FFA reporter who portrayed the student who died in the video.

Next, the screen played through an approximately five-minute slideshow of photos from Walker’s life. Then, her mother Heather Walker took to the podium to share the impact of her loss. After sharing many of the things she admired about Lily Grace, the girl’s mother warned the funeral attendees of how poor decisions can have catastrophic consequences for themselves and the people who love them.

“As her mother, I find myself asking what I could have done differently,” she said. “What could I have said or done to impact her so that she would have made a better decision that night? I don’t yet have the answer, and I don’t know that I will, but I know that I don’t want to see any of you go down the same path that she did.”

The eulogy included a quote attributed to English author Virginia Woolf: “Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more.”

Walker encouraged her daughter’s classmates to live as though they would not get a do-over of their actions and to consider consequences before making decisions.

“Each of you is destined to make your mark on the world, but you can’t do that if you die young like she did,” she said.

As the docudrama concluded, Metcalf broke kayfabe to deliver a plea to students based on his own experience over decades in education. He also thanked the students for their attention and respect throughout the performance.

“I have been in education for 21 years,” he said. “If you average it out, I have lost more than one student every year. I’ve lost kids to suicide. I’ve lost kids to drug overdoses. I’ve lost kids to single impulsive decisions that once they made they couldn’t take back. That’s all it takes to end your life. There’s always a decision. One decision can end your life or change it forever.”

Metcalf said he would like to believe that none of the students listening had ever tried drugs or alcohol, but it would be naive for him to think that.

“I can either pretend that those things don’t happen and move on with life, or myself and the SADD club can do things to try to raise your awareness about those types of things.”

Metcalf ended his address by encouraging students to think about decisions and remain aware of their surroundings.

“Your fellow students, your parents, your families, your teachers, myself, we all care about you,” he said. “None of us can bear the thought of losing anyone.”