The gymnasium at Bishop Garcia Diego High School was dead silent Monday as the family of Alex Brown shared the story of her death in a single-car accident on Nov. 10, 2009.

Listening to Jeanne Brown describe coming upon the accident scene and finding her 17-year-old daughter fighting for her life after being thrown out the passenger window and crushed by her vehicle made an obvious impact on the high school audience. She stressed that the presentation wasn’t delivered to make the kids feel sorry for them, but rather to spread the message about the dangers of texting and driving.

For added effect, the Browns hitch the wreckage of their daughter’s truck to a trailer and drive it to schools all over the country as they carry out the mission of the Remember Alex Brown Foundation. They drove 24 hours from Wellman, Texas, to make this presentation in Santa Barbara on Monday.

The harsh reality is that 11 teenagers die every day in this country as a result of auto accidents. When kids text and drive, they are engaged in the three primary types of distraction that can cause accidents: visual (looking at the phone instead of the road), manual (taking their hands off the wheel) and cognitive (taking their mind off the task of driving).

In the six seconds that it takes to pick up the phone and read a text message, a vehicle will typically travel the distance of 1½ football fields.

Johnny Mac Brown, Alex’s father, and her younger sister, Katrina, also took part in the presentation. Katrina touched a nerve when she asked the Bishop students to raise their hands if they had an older sibling. She wanted those kids to know how much their younger siblings look up to them and how much they love them.

“I am jealous of all of you because I don’t have my big sister anymore,” she said.

Bishop students were invited to sign a pledge not to text and drive and were given thumb rings (similar to the rubber bracelets used to support many good causes) to serve as a reminder. The Brown family spoke at Bishop Diego at the invitation of the BDHS Parent Advisory Board.

— Ashley Snider is the director of admissions and public relations at Bishop Garcia Diego High School.