Education Law

Helping youth kick “butts”

BoardBuzz is happy to announce that March 24, 2010 marks the 14th anniversary of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids? Kick Butts Day, a day for kids everywhere to stand up to the tobacco industry and let them know that their actions targeting youth are unacceptable.  The focus area this year is on smoke-free workplaces and public places.  This means schools!

BoardBuzz readers know that the only way to protect kids completely from tobacco is with a 100 percent tobacco-free schools policy, so this year on Kick Butts Day, we encourage readers to consider their district tobacco policies. Does your policy prohibit the use of all tobacco products, on all school property, at all times, by everyone?  If not, BoardBuzz urges readers to revise and strengthen their policies!

In light of a new study linking lung cancer to people who were exposed to secondhand smoke as children, even if they never use tobacco themselves, BoardBuzz knows that it is particularly important to make sure that students are not exposed to smoke at school!

Kick Butts Day is a great opportunity for BoardBuzz readers to partner with local youth to work on a comprehensive tobacco-free school policy!  Kids can be a very powerful force in persuading the powers that be, and fun activities can be incorporated for some added impact.

For other ideas for quick, low-cost and easy Kick Butts Day activities already being planned in your community, please click here.  For help developing  a comprehensive tobacco-free schools policy, visit the National Consortium on Tobacco Use Prevention through Schools or contact schoolhealth@nsba.org.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on March 18, 2010 (boomark / email).