Feature article

Visuals spread the word on Kick Butts Day

Article and pictures by Tammy Lane
March 19, 2008

  Strong messages and arresting images marked Kick Butts Day in local high schools.
  At Tates Creek, students in TATU (Teens Against Tobacco Use) talked with classes throughout the day about the health consequences of smoking, using the ever-popular inflatable pig lungs to demonstrate the harmful effects.
  The students’ lime green T-shirts read “R.I.P.” on the front and “26 - The number of people who die in KY each day from tobacco” on the back. TATU members also strung 1,200 multi-colored silhouettes throughout the hallways to represent the nation’s daily tobacco-related deaths.
  Health and P.E. teacher Jo Smith, the TATU sponsor at Tates Creek, said graphic displays and tough anti-smoking messages are effective with students. “But they need to be constantly reminded of the dangerous effects of tobacco,” she added.
  Mona Bond, the sponsor at Paul Laurence Dunbar High, agreed.
  “Visual aides are reminders that students can actually see and think about,” she said. “The graphic presentations can begin conversations among students that might encourage them to quit or cause them to think about their own actions.”
  Kick Butts Day is a day of activism that empowers youths to speak up and take action in more than 2,000 events from coast to coast. Nationally, the 13th annual event is April 2, but that date falls during FCPS’ Spring Break. So the school district’s TATU groups decided to mark the day two weeks in advance.
  TATU members used various techniques to discourage classmates from picking up the tobacco habit. Among them:
* At Lafayette, students posted signs with tobacco stats around the school; they also handed out Kick Butts Day stickers and bookmarks with smoking facts. TATU emphasized the amount of carcinogens in cigarettes and the long-term effects of tobacco use and second-hand smoke.
  “Many students do not realize how much money and health is lost when smoking, so the presentations really open their eyes,” said Kelley Oliver, the TATU sponsor.
* At Paul Laurence Dunbar, students broadcast a Kick Butts Day commercial on PLD-TV and posed tobacco-related trivia questions in the cafeteria.
* At Bryan Station High School, tar-laden pig lungs illustrated the consequences of smoking a pack a day for four years, and Mr. Dip Lip showed how chewing tobacco deteriorates the mouth. Students also asked their classmates to promise not to smoke.
  “As a teenager, I know visual things will catch their eye. I know that if hundreds of people see lungs inflating in the cafeteria, they will be curious,” said junior Caroline White, the TATU student coordinator at Bryan Station. “I also think students approaching students to pledge to be ‘smoke-free’ is a useful tactic because it is ‘student helping student’ that makes a difference.”

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