Post by bellerophon on Feb 5, 2019 23:44:46 GMT
Hello! So, I'm inquiring about this "after-school special" type-thing that has been on my mind lately. I clearly remember the day we watched it in Elementary School (Maybe around 3rd or 4th Grade), our counselor came in and played it, and the video was long enough to last until lunch, if that means anything. Of course I doubt the special was 3-4 hours, but my memory is naturally a bit foggy.
The contents of the video featured a cartoon of a boy's life and how he got entangled with drugs, I can sort of make out a cheap wikiHow-like animation to it in my head, it went along more like a powerpoint presentation than an animation, still images changing frame to frame. There was a narrator to it that explained everything, no voice acting or anything. The story was purported to be real by the narrator, and I think it may have even said at some point that it was his mother who put the whole thing together. At any rate, it was your typical "scare straight" story, if I recall the boy had no father perhaps due to walking out, and the story explained that this lack of a strong male figure caused him to turn to drugs at the request of one of his older friends, someone he looked up to. It ended with him getting arrested for selling to minors, and then it switched to live action of a silhouetted figure in a prison cell telling kids not to end up like him, apparently supposed to be the real life person.
It was obviously a bit jarring to a lot of the kids but it was still rather inoffensive in its portrayal, whether or not it really was an actual man's story is probably what intrigues me so much about it. I did some modest research but considering I have no idea where they got the video from, nothing much turned up. I did end up finding and skimming through a special about convict John Evans, the reference I had heard that got me thinking about this special again, but other than apparently being based on a real criminal it doesn't match up with anything else I remember.
Anybody else recall this special, or is there some LM resource it could be preserved on? Thanks!
The contents of the video featured a cartoon of a boy's life and how he got entangled with drugs, I can sort of make out a cheap wikiHow-like animation to it in my head, it went along more like a powerpoint presentation than an animation, still images changing frame to frame. There was a narrator to it that explained everything, no voice acting or anything. The story was purported to be real by the narrator, and I think it may have even said at some point that it was his mother who put the whole thing together. At any rate, it was your typical "scare straight" story, if I recall the boy had no father perhaps due to walking out, and the story explained that this lack of a strong male figure caused him to turn to drugs at the request of one of his older friends, someone he looked up to. It ended with him getting arrested for selling to minors, and then it switched to live action of a silhouetted figure in a prison cell telling kids not to end up like him, apparently supposed to be the real life person.
It was obviously a bit jarring to a lot of the kids but it was still rather inoffensive in its portrayal, whether or not it really was an actual man's story is probably what intrigues me so much about it. I did some modest research but considering I have no idea where they got the video from, nothing much turned up. I did end up finding and skimming through a special about convict John Evans, the reference I had heard that got me thinking about this special again, but other than apparently being based on a real criminal it doesn't match up with anything else I remember.
Anybody else recall this special, or is there some LM resource it could be preserved on? Thanks!
