Contact: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Thursday, August 6, 2009

Tates Creek High School has received the 2009 Community Partner Award, given to a person or group that promotes a safe, healthy community by reducing the use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. It’s the first time a school has earned this honor, given by the Mayor’s Alliance on Substance Abuse and the Fayette County Agency for Substance Abuse Policy (ASAP).

Tates Creek High has a no-tolerance policy for smoking on campus, particularly in restrooms. Led by Associate Principal Ann Shaw, staff members have been trained to monitor and enforce this policy to ensure their students can breathe clean air.

“We’re just very intentional about addressing smoking,” Shaw said. “Change takes a long time, but if we can plant those seeds, hopefully as (the teenagers) mature, they may remember some of the things they were taught.”

She will accept the award Sept. 10 at the next meeting of the two sponsoring groups.

“We believe the most effective way to prevent nicotine is to never let that addiction into a child’s life. The staff members at Tates Creek High School feel the same way and work hard to not only prevent tobacco use on campus, but give students who smoke the chance to quit before it’s too late,” said Drew Beckett, vice chairman of Fayette’s ASAP and a tobacco control health educator with the county health department.

“Ms. Shaw, along with (health and P.E. teacher) Jo Geddes, have been instrumental in allowing UK nursing students on campus to teach tobacco cessation to the students who smoke and in maintaining the strongest Teens Against Tobacco Use program in the school district.”