By ETHAN CRANE – Senior Copy Editor
The Clarke County School District Wellness Committee encourages faculty, students and their families to participate in the Great American Smokeout on Nov. 20.
The Clarke County School District Wellness Committee promotes observance of the Great American Smokeout, organized by the American Cancer Society, on Thurs., Nov. 20 among its faculty, students and their families. The smokeout, first observed in 1970, encourages tobacco users to stop using for the day and use it as a kickoff point for quitting altogether.
“A major part of the (wellness committee’s) job is to remind faculty of health-related things going on in the community. Things like (the smokeout) can slip up on you and even if you’re planning to do it, people get busy and in the middle of the day remember, ‘Oh, yeah, I was going to participate,’” assistant principal and Clarke Central High School Wellness Committee co-chair Dr. Sheila Dunham said.
Dunham says that over the course of her lifetime tobacco usage at public schools has drastically decreased, but the problem of underage usage and the risk of addiction remains, which makes the need for the smokeout relevant.
“When I was in high school there were smoking areas for students – those used to exist – and faculty members could smoke in designated areas,” Dunham said. “But now, (smoking) would be a difficult habit to keep up. If you can go for 12 hours without a cigarette every day, or 5 days a week, you can probably go without smoking.”
