It’s expected that after 36 required hours of drivers education and countless lessons about the dangers of reckless driving, student drivers would think twice before engaging in risky and life-threatening events. However, a trend of dangerous and reckless driving has recently sped into AHS.

This year, some of the juniors have “raced backwards on Four Year Run,” junior James Terrell said. While junior year is when most students receive their licenses, it is not uncommon for them to neglect the responsibilities that come with driving and think there will be no consequences.

“Young people think they’re invincible,” health teacher Gabe Romano said. “They never think anything will go wrong.”

“I actually don’t know anyone that got in trouble for reckless driving,” junior Nolan Gilbert said.

In their mind, as long as you’re clever enough to avoid being caught, you’re in the clear to drive as recklessly as you want. “I drove [my friend’s] Mercedes at 110 mph on the highway,” junior Alaa Haj-Assaad said. “And I drifted in a neighborhood.”

Drivers education teachers have to follow a very structured and FCPS approved lesson plan, and furthermore only get 36 hours with their students. These limitations may be why they cannot get on a personal level with their students and really demonstrate how reckless driving can affect everyone, especially in light of these recent events.

However, it is also the responsibility of the students to exercise their better judgment. “[The lessons] are meant to get your attention, but what you do what your license is your business,” Romano said.

In fact, a few students have already gotten in trouble for the way they drive. “I got a ticket for going 98 miles [per hour] on my way back from Old Dominion University,” senior Sergio Moya said. “I have court on Oct. 28 for it.”

Junior Bilal Farooq also said he got his licence suspended for three weeks on one count of speeding, failure to obey a highway sign and two noise violations.

Unfortunately, reckless behavior is not where it ends with some students. One anonymous student admitted to driving while “tipsy” one night, and seemed to think it wasn’t a big deal since he was not belligerently drunk and because it was in the dead of the night when there wasn’t much traffic.

“Despite the fact that not many people are on the road, things can go wrong,” Romano said. “Students think that [they] can control this two or three-thousand pound car going x miles.”

Whether sober or not, driving in any way that does not comply with state traffic laws can be extremely dangerous and comes with severe consequences. “I’ve learned not to speed since it puts other peoples lives and my own life in danger,” Farooq said.