Students from El Dorado High and Barton Junior High Schools’ eXtreme Youth Programs made a stand against smoking Wednesday at the Union County Courthouse in recognition of Kick Butts Day, a national day for youth anti-smoking activism.
“Basically, (Wednesday) is a national holiday, Kick Butts Day. It’s just for youth groups around the country to get together and talk about the harmful effects of tobacco,” said Rahiem Cain, a junior at EHS.
The group demonstrated at the courthouse with educational materials and community service, as well as displays designed to catch people’s eyes. One display showed the different chemicals present in cigarettes and tobacco smoke and what effects those chemicals can have in the human body.
“Some of the chemicals you would call poison control for are in cigarettes,” Cain said. He highlighted arsenic, which is used in rat poison and pesticides, as being one of those dangerous chemicals.
The students also handed out informational fliers and pamphlets about other forms of tobacco and nicotine use, like chewing tobacco and vaping, or, as Cain called it, “Juuling,” which refers to a particular brand of electronic cigarettes.
“Kids can smoke nicotine-fused vapor. This is a problem because teachers, parents, grownups don’t know about it,” he said, noting that he had even seen a student vape in class without the teacher noticing.
Also on the display table was a large model of the inside of a smoker’s mouth; inside, one could see sores, damaged teeth and a furry tongue. Kaitlynn Ford, a sophomore at EHS, pointed out that even the tongue can be damaged by smoking, developing sores and potentially even cancer.
“We’re not here to shun people for smoking, but we hope to educate and prevent future smokers,” Cain said.
The group’s largest display was set in the courthouse lawn. There, the students had makeshift headstones and body bags that were marked with different diseases one can develop as a result of smoking.
“The graveyard isn’t real, but the conditions are real,” Ford said. “We have this display to show young people and others what diseases smoking can cause.”
Each headstone also had an age on it, marking the different ages at which one might start to develop problems as a result of smoking. One stone indicated a 10 year old that could die from breathing secondhand smoke.
“There are kids younger than 10 that die from secondhand smoke,” Ford said. She mentioned several other diseases that can be caused by smoking, like asthma, heart disease, cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
EXtreme Youth Programs is a SHARE Foundation service that engages students at EHS and BJHS to help build a safe and drug-free community. The group also works to prevent tobacco and alcohol use, especially within their own age groups.
“We hope to accomplish getting more teenagers to pull away from drugs, alcohol and tobacco abuse,” Ford said.
Carlaskio Smith is the executive director of the eXtreme Youth Programs. He said the demonstration was a success.
“They hear about it all the time, so here we have a display of everything that’s in [cigarettes],” Smith said. “We’ve actually had some smokers come through. One woman was moved to tears.”
The program receives funding from the Arkansas Department of Health as well as the Arkansas Children’s Hospital. While the students in eXtreme Youth typically meet or have an event at least monthly, Smith said it was important to get their message out to a wide audience today.
“Today we wanted to be more visible to the community,” Smith said. “I think it’s been very impactful.”
Adrianne Carey, who administrates eXtreme Youth Programs at BJHS, agreed.
“We do have young kids who are experimenting with smoking so it’s imperative to start this at a young age,” Carey said.
Caitlan Butler can be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].