More than 400,000 people in the United States will die this year from a tobacco-related disease. The Jackson Tobacco Reduction Coalition applauds the efforts of eight local schools who are planning awareness and educational activities in their schools to reduce tobacco and other forms of tobacco product use by participating in Kick Butts Day, a nationwide initiative sponsored by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids that makes students leaders in the effort to stop youth tobacco use. The majority of these young people are part of the Jackson County initiative known as Most Teens Don’t.
Columbia Central Junior High
· Spin wheel trivia at lunch
· Place black flags near schools main entrance with sign that represent people who die in Michigan each day from tobacco products
East Jackson
· Have students sign pledge cards to never use tobacco products
· Create anti-tobacco posters to hang up
· Create anti-tobacco slogans to go on the announcements that day
· Paint rocks that have anti-tobacco messaging and give them away to peers at school
Grass Lake Middle School
· Spin wheel trivia at lunch
Hanover-Horton Middle School
· Create posters with facts about tobacco to hang around the school
· Pass out heresy’s kisses with a note on them that says “who will want to kiss you if you smoke? No one likes kissing as ashtray”.
Hanover-Horton High School
· Display black flags near schools main entrance with a sign that represents people who die in MI each day from tobacco products
· Cover hallway lights with black paper and put up signs to explain that they represent those who have died from tobacco products
Michigan Center
· Place black flags on lockers throughout the school and put on announcements that they represent Kick Butts Day and those who die from tobacco products
Middle School @ Parkside
· Create large pin buttons with anti-tobacco messaging to wear the day of the event
· Place black flags on lockers to represent people who have died from tobacco products
Vandercook Lake Middle School
· Demonstrations to represent how much the tobacco industry costs society as a whole (health care, etc)
· Display a fake tar jar in the schools main entrance
· Have students from MTD speak to Elementary students about the dangers of tobacco products
We know that 90% of smokers start using tobacco regularly by the time they are 18. Isn’t this astonishing? “All of Jackson County’s Most Teens Don’t chapters work hard to create activities that will help raise awareness of the dangers of tobacco products. Their creativity and determination to make a difference in their schools and communities are things to be admired.” states Emma Sigman, Most Teens Don’t Coordinator and Substance Abuse Prevention Specialist.
There are many effective ways state and local officials can protect young people from tobacco. They can use funds from the states’ 1998 legal settlement with the tobacco companies to pay for tobacco prevention programs; they can increase tobacco taxes; and they can pass smoke-free laws to protect us from secondhand smoke. Consider these facts: Each day, more than 1,000 kids become new regular smokers; roughly one-third of them will die prematurely from a tobacco-related disease.
Rhonda Rudolph, Jackson Tobacco Reduction Coalition [co.jackson.mi.us] Coordinator states, “Our youth are our future and we need to support their efforts to become positive role models for current and future generations while at the same time encouraging and working with current tobacco users to empower them to quit and overcome their addiction to the nicotine in their current choice of tobacco product.”
For more information, call the Jackson Tobacco Reduction Coalition at (517)768-2131 or call Most Teens Don’t at (517) 205-3782. You can also reach Emma Sigman by email at esigman1@hfhs.org or Rhonda Rudolph at rrudolph@co.jackson.mi.us
Source: PRESS RELEASE
