Teaching students to drive a summer mission for Southeast's Cooper

Jul. 23—This summer, Southeast Lauderdale High School head baseball coach Shay Cooper traded his bat and glove for four tires and a steering wheel, teaching nearly two dozen area high school students how to be safe and responsible drivers.

Cooper, who also serves as Southeast's athletic director, has been teaching driver's education at Southeast for 20 years.

"You can go from one extreme to the next," he said. "I have some, like the girl I just got out of the car with, who drives as well as I do. She is experienced. She drives with her mom ... Those drivers that are experienced are a lot more relaxed. They don't freak out. Then, I have other examples where the kid hasn't driven any and everything is new. The car is new, the brakes are new."

Being in a few fender benders, seeing a few scratches to the vehicle, ending up in a few ditches and a close encounter with a log truck can be par for the course for a driver's ed teacher, he said.

"We have had different little fender benders. We rubbed a parked school bus trying to get gas at the county barn one time. The kid thought he had enough room to turn, but he didn't. We have run off in ditches," he recalled. "That was early on, and I have gotten to where now I am pretty much dictating as we go. 'We turn left here. We've got to use a brake.' You try to anticipate anything that can go wrong and try to head it off before it happens."

This summer, Cooper had 22 students in his driver's ed class, one of only two still taught in the county school district. His students were not just from Southeast, but from across the county, including West Lauderdale, Lamar, Enterprise and Northeast high schools.

"We would barely have 10 some years and the class would hardly make," Cooper said. "Then, this year we had 22. It is the biggest class we have had in a while."

The charge for driver's ed is $125, and students receive 30 hours of classroom instruction that includes lectures and video presentations plus six hours of supervised, behind-the-wheel driving. Cooper brings in a law enforcement officer to talk to the students about safe driving and a representative from the railroad to discuss railroad crossing safety.

To participate, students must be in high school and already hold a state-issued driver's permit before they can enroll in the course. The maximum number of students allowed in the course is 25 with a minimum of 10 to offer the class.

Students receive half a credit for passing driver's ed and a certificate; some insurance companies will offer a discount to students for taking the class.

Nationwide, driver's education has fallen victim to budget cuts, a dwindling number of teachers certified to teach driver's ed and, more recently, a shortage of new automobiles that school districts can purchase for the class.

Still, Cooper thinks it is a good class for students because of the safety and defensive driving techniques taught and the hours of experience behind the wheel.

"From day one, we talk about paying attention," he said. "There's so many distractions now kids deal with that we didn't deal with when we were getting our license. I would hate to know I had a phone in the car back then. It is amazing to me there isn't a wreck every five minutes considering the amount of phones you see people using when you drive down the road."

Southeast High's location offers many driving opportunities for the students, he said.

"One thing about being here is ... you can get a kid a lot of experience in a lot of different ways," he said. "We can drive out in the country. We can go into town and drive. We can get on the interstate and highways. You have a lot of different things that they can do right here that you probably don't have everywhere."

For students who are comfortable driving, he takes them downtown and lets them practice driving on the one-way streets, changing lanes and merging onto the interstate.

"But if they are not that far along," he said of their driving experience, "then we may stay out here in the county and work on things around here."

Cooper said he enjoys teaching driver's education because the students are fun and seem eager to get their license.

Helping students pass the class and preparing them to take their driver's test can be rewarding, he said, noting one foreign exchange student he helped get her Mississippi driver's license.

"She was bound and determined, and she got her driver's license before she left," he said. "That was back when it was across from MCC and we probably drove that block like 20 times where she could practice everything she needed to do. She wanted to make sure she had it down pat, and she passed it."

Contact Glenda Sanders at gsanders@themeridianstar.com.