By: centraljersey.com
WEST AMWELL – The first school in Hunterdon County to adopt a comprehensive tobacco-free policy is advising other schools and educational groups on how to implement the same policy.
South Hunterdon Regional High School, serving grades seven to 12, sent representatives last week to the Dolce Hotel in Basking Ridge to speak at a conference on behalf of the New Jersey Tobacco Advisory Council.
Superintendent Nancy Gartenberg was accompanied by the school’s student assistance counselor, Margaret Christofely, and Cindy Zidzik, advisor to the school’s REBEL chapter. Junior Danielle Lelie also attended.
REBEL is a statewide, youth-led and youth-driven anti-tobacco movement whose mission is to reach, educate and empower New Jersey’s youth to make healthy lifestyle decisions and support nonsmoking as the social norm. The acronym stands for Reaching Everyone by Exposing Lies.
The topic they addressed Dec. 7 in Basking Ridge was "20th Century School Policies Meet 21st Century Tobacco Products."
The tobacco industry is "trying to target replacement smokers," the youths who can replace smokers, who have quit or died, Ms. Gartenberg said. As part of that goal, many of their products are aimed at a younger market segment with such items as fruit-flavored cigars and tobacco strips, orbs and sticks, and even electronic cigarettes.
The goal for a school such as South Hunterdon is better health through cessation, not punishment, Ms. Gartenberg said, although repeat offenders could face suspension and other disciplinary measures.
However, a first offense will land a student in an in-school cessation program with Ms. Christofely.
The tobacco advisory council was convened by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services in partnership with the Princeton Center for Leadership Training.
According to REBEL, 3,000 teens in the United States begin smoking each day, about 85 of them in New Jersey. The group predicts one-third of them will die of a tobacco-related disease. The group says, "In their memos, one of the tobacco companies called teens ‘replacement smokers.’ Replacements for the customers who die. It’s time Big Tobacco learned that New Jersey teens are not for sale!"