{"id":14712,"date":"2026-01-22T08:59:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T13:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=14712"},"modified":"2026-01-27T16:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T21:00:11","slug":"challenge-encourages-students-to-buckle-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/challenge-encourages-students-to-buckle-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenge encourages students to buckle up"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Senior Erin Broderick buckles up her seatbelt before driving home on Jan. 15, 2025. It is a simple action that saves lives by securing people in their seats.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Chrystal Cruz<\/em><\/p>\n

The Get it Together Seat Belt Challenge<\/a> is once again taking place at Ocean Lakes High School.<\/p>\n

The program involves 18 high schools across the Hampton Roads area, six of which are in Virginia Beach. In addition to Ocean Lakes, participating high schools include Kellam, Landstown, Princess Anne, Salem and Tallwood.<\/p>\n

It is a challenge that promotes safety, seat belt awareness and resources for young men and women to make good driving decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal this year is to make sure that all of our dolphins are buckling up,\u201d assistant principal James Imbriale said. \u201cWe want to help increase Virginia\u2019s overall seat belt usage which, historically, has been on the lower side of the 50 states.\u201d<\/p>\n

Imbriale promotes the program within the building, and he aligns the resources to earn points and make sure that the school is represented to its fullest in this challenge. Last year, Ocean Lakes reached the highest standard that could be received.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were a gold winner last year, and it is our expectation to win gold again,\u201d Imbriale said.<\/p>\n

Driver\u2019s Education teacher Michael Pollock has also been involved in this challenge since last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year our PSA (public service announcement) video was hands down the best of all the submissions and our seat belt numbers are always at the top,\u201d Pollock said.<\/p>\n

Senior Sam Patterson and junior Addison Munson are two students that help Imbriale and Pollock along the way. To make students aware of their actions, they are going to post PSA videos, pledges and signage around the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the morning Sam and I get to school, and we walk to the front of the student parking lot so we can record the seat belt data,\u201d Addison said. \u201cFor example, when a car drives by, we look to see if the driver, passenger or backseat passengers have their seat belt on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data is collected and submitted once by Dec. 5, and again by Feb. 6. They collect three unannounced seat belt checks, points for various activities and a 20- to 30-second video, which is how they get judged for their points.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can get young people across the nation to get into the habit of buckling up early in their driving career, they have a better chance at surviving bad car accidents,\u201d Pollock said.<\/p>\n

Chrystal Cruz<\/em><\/strong> is a sophomore and journalist for <\/em>The Current<\/em><\/a>, Ocean Lakes High School\u2019s student news website.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chrystal Cruz The Get it Together Seat Belt Challenge is once again taking place at Ocean Lakes High School. The program involves 18 high schools across the Hampton Roads […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":14717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,225],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-student-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14712"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14724,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14712\/revisions\/14724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}