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Maybe. But I can think of no quicker way, as a teacher, to lose a kid's trust forever than to spring a hideously painful and manipulative lie on them under the guise of education. I can think of few things that are more likely to harden a kid's attitude of mistrust and dislike toward authority, or their belief that adults are deceptive and out of touch with how kids think and feel.

What happens to the kid whose best friend, boyfriend, study buddy, or crush is declared dead in front of everyone? Are we really supposed to say, "Gee, I'm sorry you had the most traumatic morning of your young life, but we're kind of hoping that hearing about the death of some kid he used to steal lunch money from will maybe make the football halfback who likes to pound 40s of Mickey's on the weekends think twice before getting into his Mustang?"

I don't care if maybe it works better for a couple of kids than hearing the same message from everyone they love and zillions of signs around them. It is cruel, it is manipulative, and it is emotionally abusive. I would never participate in such a thing as a teacher, and if my kid's school did that to them, I would sue them.

__________________
Dull sublunary lovers love,
Whose soul is sense, cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
That thing which elemented it.

(From "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne)