2004 Year in Review

Victims of DUI meet with MHS students.

When a drunk driver is sentenced in Whiteside County most of the time they will be sentenced to the Victim Impact Panel (VIP). Mary Ortega, the Whiteside County State’s Attorney’s Victim’s Assist, sets up the meeting between the victims of DUI and those convicted of DUI.

On Thursday afternoon, Morrison’s Driver Education Teacher, Rod Scott, set up a similar meeting between the entire Morrison High School and victims of DUI. Connie Shilkaitis of Prophetstown and Jean Porter of Morrison told their stories to the students. Additionally others told their emotional victim’s stories through a video. Some students were visible shaken by the stories.

Connie was only 23 years old when she was partying, drinking, and doing speed. She flipped her car and damaged the motor center of the brain. Connie, unable to care for herself, has spent the last 25 years in a wheel chair.

At the age of 3, Jean and her family were in a car that was hit by a drunken 58-year-old man. She lost both her parents and a brother. She and two siblings survived the fatal accident. “People come up to me all the time that were in the VIP and they say they never knew that about me. It really affects them.”

“When the judges bring the DUI defendants back to court, most say the VIP was the biggest deterrent to drinking. They get mad about having to pay a fine and they’re embarrassed to get their name in the paper. I’m 100% sure people are alive today because of VIP,” Ortega proudly explained.

A student from MHS, who has gone through the program, said, “My parents paid the fine, no big deal, but the VIP had a huge impact on me.”

The group meets every other month with victims of DUI.

“The students think they are invinsible and nothing will happen to them,” explained Scott.

by Barb Benson, theCity1.com
April 29, 2004