Staff Report
BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. — Bellows Falls students recently drew quotes and statistics about the dangers of tobacco on the school parking lot.
The drawings were part the school’s participation in Kick Butts Day—a day where students encourage peers to be tobacco free.
More than 1,000 Kick Butt Day events were planned across the nation. Students and health advocates called on elected officials to make a roadmap for a tobacco free future by increasing taxes on tobacco, implementing smoke-free laws and raising the legal age to purchase cigarettes to 21.
Tobacco claims about 1,000 lives in Vermont each year and costs $348 million in health care bills, according to a press release.
Though tobacco rates have fallen among teens, data shows students are still using it. Fourteen percent of Bellows Falls High School students said they smoked cigarettes in the past 30 days, according to 2015 data from a Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
Twenty-seven percent said they used marijuana in the past 30 days while 22 percent of Bellows Falls High School students used smokeless tobacco in the past 30 days.
Springfield students recognized the Kick Butts initiative all week.
Riverside Middle School students produced a photovoice project that highlighted tobacco issues in the community.
Springfield High School (SHS) and RMS students also pledged to be tobacco free by signing a wall.
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