JAY — It could have been a real situation: high school kids out partying, celebrating their graduation when tragedy strikes.

The scenario was two cars crashing head-on. Empty beer cans and bottles were scattered on the ground outside one car. The scene called for several teenagers injured and one dead.

It played out Friday morning in a mock accident at a parking lot at Jay High School.

Senior Emily Stoops, the driver of one car, staggered and looked around the crash site. One of her passengers was still in the car. The other, senior Shauni Flagg, was out. In the second car, three students were inside.

All of the participants from both vehicles appeared injured. Fake blood was on their faces, hands and legs.

A girl came out of the school, opened her cellphone and called 911.

Jay police and firefighters, NorthStar Emergency Services ambulances and medics arrived on the scene.

Students from the school came out to see what was going on.

The mock accident had been hushed up as best as possible to present students with as real a tragedy as possible.

Freshman Zachary Espeaignette said he had heard something was going on but didn’t know what. He watched with other students.

“It was kind of shocking,” he said. “It looked so real. I feel it would be very devastating and something really sad if it happened.”

He and others said it was a good warning to students about what could happen.

They continued to watch as Jay police Detective Richard Caton IV gave Stoops a field sobriety test. She was handcuffed and put in the police cruiser and taken away.

Firefighters worked to free the driver of the other car and passengers. All but one of the four remaining in the vehicles were removed, either on stretchers or helped to an ambulance.

Firefighters put a red tarp over the top of the second vehicle before removing a student who feigned death. The body, which was covered with a white sheet, was on a stretcher.

Parent David Flagg, whose daughter, senior Shauni Flagg, was a passenger in the car Stoops allegedly drove, said he helped set up a previous mock crash.

It’s all up to the kids and what they take away from this, he said.

“If it helps one, it will make a difference,” Flagg said.

Students returned to the school and were debriefed on the accident and the next legal steps that would be taken. Jay firefighter Curtis Brooks, also an organizer of the event, said previously that students would learn what could happen to those charged, including going to prison if found guilty.

[email protected]