Click Clack Front & Back

How many students heard the message of your project?
839

Estimated percentage of your student body?
91-100%

Who has your project aimed to reach? 
Freshman class, Sophomore class, Junior class, Senior class, School professionals, Parents, Community at large

Objective:
Our objective is to increase the compliance of teens, adults, and all other passengers wearing their seat belts in the car – both front and back. However, this year, our emphasis was heightened on enforcing seat belt safety, specifically in the vehicle’s rear. As our message has been for the last three years, “Click Clack Front and Back,” we have been propelled by this notion to want to inform people about the equally important decision to buckle up in the back just as how one would in the front. Thus, by confirming that there is more considerable negligence for rear seat belt safety, based on a pre-research survey we conducted, we have been actively working to spread awareness through social media, events, and changes in the present laws regarding the penalty for not wearing a seatbelt in the backseat.

Target Audience:
The “Click Clack Front and Back” project targets any individual who will be traveling in a motor vehicle, and our audience is the faculty and the students of IHHS, including members of the Franklin Lakes, Oakland, and Wyckoff (FLOW) community. The students and faculty are not only welcoming recipients of the knowledge but also transporters of our message, for we believe our message has and will continue to be translated to their parents, older and younger siblings, relatives, and anyone else they may talk to. Another audience we are still seeking to connect with is the entire population of New Jersey through the change in seat belt law that we are working on with Senator Schepisi, which is now being sent to the Office of Legislative Services as of May 2, 2022.

We used the U Got Brains-Champion Schools Program-Safe Driver of the Month parking spot to appeal to teenagers by creating contests for one selected student to use the spot per month. These contests included interactive activities, such as a driver’s safety-themed wordle and a “funniest driving story” contest. We also created various other content to promote safe driving, including interactive Instagram posts (word searches, bingo boards, etc.), TikToks, a catchy song parody of Levitating by Dua Lipa, and polls on Schoology, seatbelt safety memes, and traffic safety posters. We also promoted signing the Pledge 2 Win Share the Road Campaign to be eligible to win a $50.00 Amazon gift card on Schoology, our social media platforms, and our website. We also hosted a Traffic Safety Thursday lunch event on March 31, 2022, for students and staff.

For adults, we sent an-e-blast message from the school explaining the program on December 8, 2021, and utilized social media channels like Facebook. We also asked adults to take the online Pledge 2 Win for a chance to win the $50.00 Amazon gift card.

Execution:
Our third year participating during the Covid-19 pandemic has certainly been our most successful with in-person meetings and events, though Zoom has certainly helped when needed. The team has worked with the enthusiasm, persistence, and vigor in they did in 2019-2020 before the shutdown. has delivered a successful campaign. The“‘Click-Clack Front and Back” (CCF&B) team met with Kate O’Connor on Friday, October 22, 2021, via Zoom and knew that they wanted to focus on seatbelt safety in both the front and back seats with an emphasis on the rear seat. In addition, continuing their work on the Primary Enforcement Seat Belt Law (Rear) change for New Jersey. In September 2021 we held our first meeting and September 28, 2021, we participated in the Interact/Guidance departments Service Fair Tuesday to promote CCF&B in partnership with the Students Against Destructive Decisions club (SADD). October and November proved to busy months with the following activities: started U Got Brains-Champion Schools Program-Safe Driver of the Month parking spot contest, participated with State Farm Bergen County Seatbelt Safety Check,8th grade Open House with SADD to promote our club activities, met with Tara Gill from Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety to discuss the bill for Primary Enforcement Seat Belt Law (Rear) change for New Jersey, virtually held the NJM’s Share The Keys & What do You Consider Lethal Presentations, National Teen Driver Safety Week, we learned that we part of a three-way tie with having 99% seat belt compliance from the students in the front and back seat. December-e-blast to community and pre-survey. January 2022 finalized suggested edits to the law from Advocates for Highway and Auto safety.February 2022 Sent Senator Schepisi’s suggested revisions to the law and await her response. March 31, 2022-Traffic Safety Thursday Lunch Event promoting campaign and Primary Enforcement Seat Belt Law (Rear) change in New Jersey. April-pos-survey and final video.

Teamwork:
The team completed the project by coming together on September 10, 2021-May, 3, 2022, approximately 30 times for our CCF&B meetings in person. Besides the independent work they did before these meetings! More than doubled membership and the senior members (class of 2022) have recruited juniors and sophomores and have worked wonderfully in mentoring them about the project. Promoting excellence in their work with the club shows their resilience and perseverance! Since middle school, these 28 students have been friends, and I believe that their close friendship contributed to their ability to work so well together. The energy that this group exuded when working together was incredible! Throughout this process, I have learned the individual team member’s strengths and would go to them for help in their area of expertise when needed.

These teens have taught me that social media can be something anyone can learn at any point in their lifetime and proved anything can be accomplished.

This year’s project has been more about teamwork than ever before, especially with an increased number of members. With every member of Click Clack’s original team graduating, it was important for everyone to work together to achieve a successful campaign. Still, all members also had to work together to decide how to prepare the underclassmen for next year’s campaign without the seniors. Seniors worked with underclassmen in a sort of “mentorship” relationship, teaching them what they do in their role and how to continue that role in the following year. The seniors are confident in the sophomores and juniors involved and are sure that they will continue the team’s momentum in the following years.

Use of resources:
We reached out to Tara Gill from Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety for advice about approaching local Bergen County legislators to change current state law. She spoke with me to answer some initial questions and provide guidance, suggestions, and resources for the team’s desire to propose a Primary Enforcement Seat Belt Law (Rear) change for New Jersey. She met on Zoom with CCF&B members on 10/15/21. We have exchanged 63 email messages and at least three phone calls. In our most recent call on May 3, 2022, we discussed the next steps involving the law and what we can do to advocate for the law change.

Senator Holly Schepisi met with the team on Monday, May 3, 2021, and has agreed to work in partnership with the team to write a bill supporting Primary Enforcement Seat Belt Law (Rear) change for New Jersey. Bill was drafted on July 20, 2021. Sent edits to Senator February 2022 and learned on May 2, 2022, it is being sent to the Office of Legislative Services in Trenton. We have exchanged 42 email messages and at least six phone calls to date.

The CCF&B Pre-Research Survey and Post-Research Survey were posted on Schoology and distributed through our Health and Physical Education classes and social media to get adult input. We did reach out to Officer Bryan Rowin, who oversees the Traffic Bureau for the Borough of Oakland Police Department. Officer Rowin conducted an in-person interview on Thursday, March 31, 2022, and was part of the traffic safety lunch event. We were fortunate to have our Parent Teacher Student Organization (PTSO) offer a $25.00 gift card to Dunkin for one lucky student participant that attended our lunch event.

The team’s findings were delivered to the students and staff via informational polls and posts. We used posts on all forms of social media created by the group to spread the message about seatbelt safety.

Use of media:
We understood the importance of social media to spread our message and reach high school populations.

We continued using Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/clickclackfrontandback_ihhs/, where we shared videos, polls, and pledges. – followers increased by 40%, and we were able to communicate with people beyond our community, including organizations

We also promoted our safety message through Twitter https://twitter.com/clickclackfron1.

We provided updated information, including weekly posts, safety messages, and pictures of our meetings, on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jill.fackelman.9/.

Our student-created website provided a wealth of information on seatbelt safety, and last year was visited 473 times with almost 5000 views this year. We also posted on a twice-a-week basis about a slew of different topics. https://mdoss22.wixsite.com/clickclackfandb

To keep current with the times, we even created a TikTok @clickclackfrontback, which we posted regularly and received nearly 10,000 views on one video! In total, our Tik Toks reached well over 16,000 users!

Our PSAs and Final Project Summary are on YouTube.

We used our school’s Learning Management System (LMS) to share messages, polls, pledges, and a Wordle game with students and staff and promote the U Got Brains-Champion Schools Program-Safe Driver of the Month parking sign spot for a deserving IHHS student driving to school.

All parents at IHHS received an e-blast message explaining our campaign, promoting our social media and website, and the Take the Pledge link.

We will be promoting our cause with a letter to the editor or op-ed to a local in Bergen County with guidance from Tara Gill. We did get an approving nod on Instagram from the Kallie Mills Foundation, based in Texas.

Thoroughness:
According to the CDC, as both passengers and drivers, teens have the lowest seat belt use of any age group. The 28 members of the team are seniors, juniors, and sophomores, some with their basic license, probationary license, and others with their permit. The topic they wanted to work on was based on observations made by adults and teens driving to Indian Hills High School. They used the following websites to gather information and statistics about seat belt use among adults and teens. The sites used include the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) for both information on seat belts and teen driving, the National Safety Council (NSC), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and AAA.

Our team has also recognized that teenagers are not always receptive to information in a traditional setting, such as a slideshow or an article. We have adjusted aspects of our campaign to acknowledge this and appeal to the teenage demographic. Instead of our campaign and information being solely in traditional media like articles and writing (though we did provide these on our website for those interested), we included engaging strategies, like contests, social media posts, and interactive activities. In this sense, teenagers are receiving the same crucial information in a more appealing and accessible medium.

Impact:
In 2018, a study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that 28% of respondents did not wear their seat belts when in the back of the car. 1,172 reasoned that there was no need. Child restraint drops 40% when the parent or guardian does not drive with a seatbelt. These statistics were of great concern to the team as they did their research.

Based upon administering a pre and post-survey, some data is significant to us in measuring change and impact on seat belt use behavior in the back seat. The following question was asked, “Do you wear a seat belt when sitting in the back seat?” Respondents were given the option of always, often, sometimes, rarely, and never. In the pre-survey, 65.4% responded always, with results increasing to 76.79% in the post-survey conducted after our campaign had finished. We viewed this as a positive behavior change amongst those surveyed, especially with such a significant increase in respondents indicating that our campaign had some effect on them, with 76% of respondents responding yes to the question, “Do you feel the U Got Brains Champion Schools Campaign at Indian Hills last year made you wear your seatbelt more?”.

Of concern to us with the same question was that 18.2% responded Often in the pre-survey, which dropped to 16% in our post-survey. It shows that there is still a need for an intervention/education that will increase the number of individuals wearing their seatbelts in the rear seat to 100% to further contribute to the safety of all community members in Oakland, NJ, and beyond. Statistics prove that when there is a Primary Enforcement Seat Belt Law, compliance tends to increase, thus increasing the safety of those on the road. Proposing Primary Enforcement Seat Belt Law (Rear) change for New Jersey can increase compliance with seatbelt use in New Jersey as it has in other states that have implemented a similar law.

Sustainability:
The level of sustainability that is retained in anything is the best measure of success, for to surmount such a high degree of work and have it all stay in the short-term is equivalent to saying “we need to start over.” Instead, our team responds to this typical response with “we need to build off.”

We were met with much success and impact in 2020 and 2021, and so when finishing off last year, we remained mindful of the fact that we needed to maintain the relationships we had formed and record the things that worked and did not work in addition to making new things this year.

Relationships. Relationships are increasingly essential and need to be sustained because who you know can open doors. Thus, the team is still growing and cultivating a relationship with Senator Schepisi, which we started at the end of last year. We are now in the later process of the bill for a Primary Enforcement Seat Belt Law (Rear) change for New Jersey.

Social Media. We live in an age where everyone is on their phones; most people say this is a negative. But, social media retains its influence year after year. And so, this year, we worked hard to grow our social media channels even more than in the last two.

Ultimately, the thing about our project that makes us inherently sustainable is that our team will not rest until everyone wears their seat belts. The opportunity truly humbles us; we get every day to try and save lives, but we are dedicated to the mission and will not settle until every person is wearing their seat belt. And so, yes, we do better and develop each year, but we know that will never stop because there will always be room for improvement.

Unexpected Lessons Learned:
It has been wonderful seeing the team in person again since 2020; the club has more than doubled in students since the first year we started. We were fortunate to implement some of our in-person events this year and look forward to building on the things we did this year. A different themed parking spot contest for each month and how quickly the contest caught on, and students were excited when they learned they were getting a prime parking spot. We worked in partnership with our SADD and Interact clubs, thus creating positive relationships with other student groups. We included Physics in our Traffic Safety Thursday’s Lunch Event with the help of one of our school’s Physics teachers.

We want to work with Officer Rowin in person and implement a Child Seat Installation/Inspection event as another means of helping promote our efforts to advocate for the Primary Enforcement Seatbelt Law (Rear).

As I mentioned, I learn more about technology from the students each year. Remind has been a great way for me to reach out to the students or vice versa for us to get a task accomplished.

I am proud of the original members and sad to see them go. I am amazed at all they have accomplished in only three short years in the most unusual circumstances. The graduating seniors all started this for the opportunity to go to Great Adventure in 2020; little did they know all the incredible work they would do to make their community safer. The seniors have shared their passion with the juniors and sophomores and did a fabulous job mentoring next year’s Click Clack Front and Back leaders!

Stipend Reporting: Your school received a stipend to support your Champion School Teen Driving Safety Project. Additionally, any funds that you raised as a result of your project must be reinvested into transportation safety. The purpose of this report is to itemize expenditures for your project that were paid from the stipend

Items for Traffic Safety Thursday Lunch Event 3/31/22 – $186.48

Ads in Indian Hills Theater Company CCF&B ads – $200.00

Custom Ink t-shirts 2021-22 – $514.16

Total – $900.64

PROJECT MEDIA

ADDITIONAL MEDIA & LINKS

INDIAN HILLS PROJECT ADDITIONAL MEDIA (Google Drive)

JUDGING FORM