Although many students have experimented — about 60 percent of our students reported they had "ever tried a cigarette" — we hope they don’t get hooked. ...

Have you ever found cigarettes in your kid’s car and been told, "They’re not mine"? And have you wondered how a kid who’s been told that cigarettes are bad every week for the last 10 years can still go ahead and smoke? Obviously, the perceived "coolness" of smoking far outweighs the perceived harm from tobacco use or even the wrath of the parents. How can we as a community steer our youth away from this unhealthy habit?

To understand the size of our tobacco use problem, we can look at our own local data. Statistics from our high school student population taken from a survey in 2005 show that 26.4 percent of them currently smoke. This number is very similar to the 25.7 percent of New Mexico kids who said, in the same survey, that they currently smoke, and slightly higher than the 23 percent of high school students nationally who reported smoking. Although many students have experimented — about 60 percent of our students reported they had "ever tried a cigarette" — we hope they don’t get hooked. We also know that the younger they start, the easier it is for them to get hooked. Forty-five percent of the current youth smokers in our district reported that they had their first cigarette before age 13.

As a school district, we have done a lot to reduce tobacco use. We have a strict tobacco-free campus policy and were recognized by the New Mexico Department of Health back in 1988 for being the first school district in the state to have such a policy. (I can remember distinctly going to visit other districts in southern New Mexico in the early 1990s and smelling heavy cigarette smoke right outside the teachers’ lounge. Remember those days?). Our policy, coupled with the Las Cruces city ordinance that banned smoking in public places starting in 1995, makes it considerably more difficult and less acceptable to smoke.

However, there are still those who disobey the rules, including the tobacco-free schools rule; and, when caught, are subject to immediate parent notification, a school suspension and/or mandatory classes about the harmfulness of tobacco use. Students are also referred to cessation classes, sometimes as a way to avoid suspension.Teachers, school counselors and school nurses do a great job of including tobacco prevention messages in a variety of health and science lessons. Students are taught about making healthy choices, lung health and dealing with peer pressure, and are given the facts about the dangers of substance use.

Community partners like the Dona Ana Community College Respiratory Therapy Program and Families and Youth Inc. come to school health fairs and bring pig lungs, one pink and healthy and one black and brittle, that demonstrate the effects of secondhand smoke. Families and Youth, Inc. does tobacco prevention education in some classrooms in our district. They also have sponsored guest speakers in middle schools like Victor DeNoble, former research scientist for a major cigarette company who speaks from personal experience about how tobacco companies tried to hide the negative health effects of cigarette use. A major movie was made about DeNoble, called "The Insider," which he personally told me was distorted, Hollywood-style.We have also brought the New Mexico Media Literacy Project in to middle schools to teach students to "read between the lines" and look at advertising more critically so they can better understand media’s influence on their choices.

Soon, Las Cruces Public Schools will have an opportunity to apply for grant funds from the NMDOH to work on tobacco prevention within our district. We welcome ideas, suggestions and help from the community. If you want to get involved in tobacco prevention or other health issues that impact students, join our School Health Advisory Council. It meets the first Wednesday of every month at 4:30 p.m. in the Las Cruces High School library.And parents please keep telling your kids how you feel about cigarette smoking. We no longer smell smoke on our child’s clothes.