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Students Rally Against Smoking

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR

cpastor@tampatrib.com

Published: April 1, 2009

NORTHDALE - Chalk outlines of 88 bodies greeted students when they arrived at Gaither High School last week, a homicide-style reminder of the number of Floridians estimated to die daily from tobacco use.

The school's chapter of Students Working Against Tobacco stayed after classes ended one day to cover the campus with messages about the dangers of smoking.

They hung posters and spelled out "Big Tobacco Kills" in red plastic cups stuck on a chain-link fence by the student parking lot. They calculated the number of cigarette butts a two-pack-a-day smoker would produce and filled three two-gallon bags with goldfish crackers to represent the amount.

The efforts were part of the 14th annual Kick Butts Day on March 25, sponsored nationally by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Gaither's group will join dozens of other middle and high schools from Hillsborough and Pinellas this afternoon at Al Lopez Park for a rally.

Students waved signs and banners at the park's Cancer Survivors Plaza, at the intersection of Dale Mabry Highway and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

"We're not there to be obnoxious but to cause awareness that big tobacco are marketing to youth," said Laurie Ellston, Hillsborough County's SWAT coordinator.

Jessie Willson, Gaither's SWAT president, attended the rally last year and had fun. A lot of drivers honked their horns and gave students thumbs-up signs, she said. Some sat in their cars, smoking.

Willson, a junior, gets a similar reaction from teens when they find out what SWAT stands for. Some are supportive but others make fun of it. Smoking is still prevalent among students, she said.

Lois Perrone, Gaither's nurse and the club's sponsor, said students have the best chance at stopping their peers from smoking.

"Kids are going to listen to kids before they'll listen to an adult," she said. "They pay attention to what the other ones are saying."

It's important to direct the message at middle and high school students, Perrone said, because they are less likely to start smoking as adults if they avoid the habit as teens. Students who start smoking in high school are more likely to continue as they get older, she said.

Ellston coordinates SWAT chapters at 22 Hillsborough schools. The clubs take similar steps as Gaither's, with signs and posters, and also participate in community health fairs. They waged a letter-writing campaign to the Lowry Park Zoo to get the zoo to become smoke-free, which it did, although officials said it had been in the works.

Gaither's club took on a personal mission as well.

Kayti Good, a junior, joined this year, and the club helped convince her mother to stop smoking. SWAT gave her facts to share about how tobacco affected the body, and Good's mother began attending cessation classes Ellston arranged.

"I've always been against tobacco," Good said. "I've always hated the smell of it and hated being around it."

The club decided to support Good's mother with encouraging letters, telling her she could do it.

She has been smoke-free for a month.

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (813) 865-1503.

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