Granite Hills High School’s (GHHS) LJE 11th-grade Law & Justice Pathway students put months of interdisciplinary learning into action on Tuesday, November 25, during multiple DUI Traffic Stop Simulations. “The high-impact project challenged students to integrate knowledge from across their coursework, U.S. History, Chemistry, Physiology, Public Safety, and Math, while applying real Supreme Court case law, understanding BAC metabolism, and conducting standardized field sobriety tests with accuracy and professionalism,” said Jane Kisling, GHHS Law, Justice, and Ethics Academy Lead.
“This hands-on experience is made possible through strong community partnerships, with The Porterville Police Department, Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, and California Highway Patrol who collaborated with the school to provide expertise and lend actual patrol vehicles, ensuring a safe, authentic learning environment that mirrors real public-safety operations.”
Held in the Granite Hills Stadium Parking Lot, the simulation is designed to replicate the unpredictability of an actual DUI checkpoint. Students rotate through four scenarios; each built around a different level of alcohol impairment. Harmony Magnet Academy’s performing arts students bring these situations to life using scripted roles ranging from a mildly impaired driver to a dangerously intoxicated individual. Their performances push CSI students to demonstrate calm communication, observational precision, and effective decision-making.
The actors use “drunk goggles,” which simulate the visual distortion and loss of coordination associated with intoxication. This allows students to conduct field sobriety tests with realism while also seeing firsthand how impairment affects a driver’s ability to follow directions.
Throughout the simulation, students must identify visible signs of intoxication, document observations, and apply proper field protocols. The evidence they gather becomes the foundation of a final written DUI case report and will ultimately be presented in a Mock Civil Trial, connecting what happens on the roadside to its long-term legal and civil consequences.
Granite Hills High School is proud to partner with local law enforcement and community organizations to provide students with an experience that not only strengthens their technical skills but reinforces the importance of ethical decision-making, public safety, and community responsibility, preparing them to be the next generation of ethical public safety professionals.
GHHS Law, Justice, and Ethics (LJE) Pathway teacher Anthony Holt said students were learning basic crime scene investigation, and over the past three weeks we’ve been learning how to investigate DUI; Drunk, Under the Influence, from the beginning to the end. They’ve been learning how to administer field sobriety tests, related to alcohol intoxication, and today is the accumulation of what we’ve been learning; doing all the tests, and concluding “if the person is under the influence.”
Sergio Aparico and Emily Drum, and other PUSD Pathways staff were at the event, as well as Hannah Moore and Diego from PUSD Communications and Public Information.
And Charles Hickinbotham, HMA Performing Arts Theater and Stagecraft teacher accompanied his students at the GHHS DUI Simulation exercise.
Porterville Police Department’s Detective Cameron Anderson said they were working with the LJE Board and CHP providing education and outreach to give the LJE and Harmony Magnet Academy students hands on experiences of real world applications of Law Enforcement investigations. Anderson said that both he and Detective Marcial Morales are on the Advisory Board of LJE Pathways.
California Highway Patrol officer Michael Smith helped and advised students in their ongoing traffic stops and DUI investigations and said they did a fantastic job, “I think it’s great for GHHS LJE to give the students this opportunity to meet with local law enforcement officers and see first hand how to perform DUI investigations.”
Kindall Mauldin from Harmony Magnet Academy Performing Arts Academy said helping during the DUI simulations was a good experience and she was glad to be a part of it, and it was fun.
She said the Field Sobriety Tests (FST) went well, and the goggles used changed your vision and disoriented you. They were blurry and curved, so it made it hard to see and know where you were stepping. The googles threw off your balance. She experienced a sort of dizziness and with the goggles. And during the test they have you count backwards, and walk back and forth, and she ended up being extremely impaired.
After the tests and investigations 48 LJE students conducted they all had to write police reports. Detective Morales praised the students and said, “They are doing very well, but they’ve been taught by Anthony Holt.”
This was LJE Academy’s 15th anniversary said Kisling, and she, “loves the commitment from the Sheriff, CHP, and PPD, and of course, Robert Dempsie, our Advisory Board Chairman.
We are having students from Harmony Magnet Academy Performing Arts helping us with the drunk driver actors.
I appreciate the support from GHHS administration, the PUSD Pathways office, “We couldn’t do it without their help.”
Dana Schiller from LJE Science said she thought the DUI simulation and investigations were a great experience for student who potentially be the next generation of law enforcement officers.
Jessica Robles from LJE said the FST simulations were very informative and helped her understand the process of a real traffic stop. And it also helped her understand how difficult it can be, “with officers having to do this every day. And how brave they are.” “I’m just thankful for this experience.”
Julian Ibarra, who also conducted a traffic stop and DUI investigation said it was a very cool experience, seeing how a FST actually happens. “It was nice to perform the tests on people from another school, and I saw how some people came out different from others. I saw one person who was being really cooperative with the officers. And I liked how the two different schools got to experiment with each other in a serious event.
When asked what he concluded after conducting FST and DUI simulation, Ibarra said, “If you know you can’t drive, Don’t Do It. Because you could kill innocent people. Even if you are just talking medication.”