Lt. Gov. honors Teen tobacco prevention group

Nicole Rogers-Seay, a senior at First Flight High School, and Blair Thomas, a sophomore at Manteo High School, presented a plaque from Lt. Gov. Beverly Purdue to the Dare County Board of Education during the March 8 meeting. The meeting was held at First Flight Elementary School.

The action came one month after the board approved a policy making Dare County Public Schools the 50th school district in North Carolina to become tobacco free.

The policy will go into effect on July 1, 2005. At that time, no one will be permitted to use any form of tobacco at any time anywhere on the school grounds. This would include all visitors or vendors on school property.

In comments to board members during the presentation, Rogers-Seay said, “What a relief it will be after July 1, 2005 for me and others to attend school functions and not worry about being exposed to secondhand smoke. Thank you for protecting the health and welfare of the children in Dare County.”

Thomas added, “Because our schools will be tobacco free, there will no longer be conflicting tobacco messages taught or this detrimental health behavior observed by students in Dare County Schools.”

The movement to have school districts become tobacco free began in 2000 as an attempt to discourage tobacco use among the state’s youth. In addition to eliminating student exposure to second hand smoke, the policy addresses the role model influence of adult visitors and staff on students on school grounds.

The momentum has increased recently with five school district’s adopting Tobacco Free School policies in just the past two months. In addition to Dare, Currituck County, Warren County, McDowell County and Elkin City Schools also passed policies.

Lt. Gov. Purdue is the chairperson for the Health and Wellness Trust Fund (HWTF). Created by the General Assembly in 2000 to allocate a portion of North Carolina’s share of the national tobacco settlement, HWTF has invested $55 million to support preventive health initiatives and $78 million to fund a prescription drug assistance program for seniors.

HWTF provides grant money to fund the Teen Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Initiative (TTPCI) through the Northeastern North Carolina Partnership for Public Health (NENCPPH) and the NC Institute for Public Health.

The NENCPPH consists of 11 local health departments that serve a 19 county area in northeast North Carolina. The counties formed the partnership to maximize the available resources and service potential of local health departments through cooperation with each other on public health issues.

The Partnership is guided by a governing board composed of local health directors and representatives from the NC Division of Public Health and the NC Institute for Public Health at the University of North Carolina.