The girl at the center of the University of Virginia rape hoax was a student activist in high school, according to local press (cached)
The story, published in part below, confirms earlier reporting that identified Jackie Coakley as an activist.
About 100 Mountain View High School students pretended to be ghosts and prisoners last week.
Students leaving the school in cars and buses passed the group, whose participants displayed signs in the shape of tombstones in a grassy spot near the school’s entrance.
Some of the signs stated: “Friends don’t let friends drink and drive” and “One time is too many.”
Mountain View High’s newly formed chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions staged what it called a “Ghost Out” two days before the school’s prom.
“Prom is the biggest night for drinking and partying,” sophomore Jacqueline Coakley said.
The student ghosts, with black T-shirts and white face paint, were victims of drunken drivers. The prisoners, dressed in orange, were the drivers responsible for their deaths.
The students gathered near a totaled car provided by M & M Auto Parts Inc. in Stafford County. The students said the vehicle was involved in a drunken-driving incident on Mountain View Road.
“It gives them a visual representation rather than just seeing numbers on a page,” said Christian Simmons, who helped organize the event.
Throughout the day, a student dressed as the grim reaper pulled high-schoolers out of class. They returned as ghosts and didn’t talk for the rest of the day.
A sheriff’s deputy and a school security officer also escorted students and teachers from class in handcuffs as part of the demonstration. They became the inmates.
Some bus drivers honked and waved at the students during their afternoon demonstration. One student, however, made an obscene gesture as he sped by.
“That’s why it happens people don’t take it seriously enough,” said senior Caitlyn Price, who founded the school’s SADD chapter and organized the event.
Mountain View security officer Richard Davis said he walked in a class and told a student that he was being arrested for a felony hit-and-run drunk driving accident that killed two young children. Davis handcuffed the teen and read him his rights.
The class applauded.
“Some were a little intimidated and shocked,” Davis said of the student response in general. “Some just laughed.”
Mountain View’s SADD chapter put up a banner in the school that read: “I pledge to never drink and drive or to let my friends drink and drive.” As of Thursday, more than 200 students had signed it.
The event’s organizers hope students follow the advice Principal Jim Stemple gives during announcements every Friday afternoon. It goes something like this: “Life is full of choices and decisions. Make all your decisions this weekend good ones.”
