It started off as the usual sort of Junior High yawner: police interrupting the Holston Middle School's curriculum to talk about the dangers of drunk driving. The class of 12-year-olds probably welcomed it. But it became an assembly to remember when Knoxville, Tennessee, police presented a picture of a bloodied corpse that one student soon recognized as her late father.

Police say the photos, taken of drunk-driving accident victims in the Knox County area, usually help make their message clear. Until the girl saw the picture of her father - face and torso mutilated, skull crushed, lying dead face-down in a puddle of his own blood - neither she nor the rest of her family had known his death had involved alcohol.

The girl's mother says her daughter was profoundly traumatized by the picture, while her lawyer wondered why such a macabre display is being shown to people who are four years shy of a driver's permit. The Knox County law director and school board are conducting investigations.

» Scott Saxon