Last week students at Crookston High School spent time learning about the dangers, and addiction caused by vaping through classroom presentations by Polk County Public Health. Crookston High School Principal Eric Bubna said the school wanted to make the presentations as effective as possible and thought small presentations by an outside expert would be the most effective. “We thought it was important for the kids to be informed about the dangers of vaping,” said Bubna. “We tend to assume as adults that the kids know everything, and they don’t. We also think it’s very effective when it’s some other adult besides their parent or teacher talking to them about it. Polk County does a fantastic job, Sarah Reese did most of the presenting. She’s a very good presenter and has tons of information and is very engaging. She worked with our staff a couple of weeks ago kind of giving them the 101 during some freshman development time and then obviously came into talk to the kids. We felt like the small class environment with more of a Q & A versus a large assembly and having that outside expert come in and talk with them would be pretty effective.”
Sarah Reese said the goal is to give the students knowledge about vaping and the consequences to help them make better decisions. “This week Polk County Public Health is working in collaboration with the Crookston School District about not only what we know about vaping in terms of data from the Minnesota Student Survey but also to answer questions,” said Reese. “We know knowledge is power, so we want to learn from the students. But we also want to teach the students how they can make informed decisions or perhaps better-informed decisions in the future and to share resources for whatever their needs are. Every student is different, and every person’s needs are different. So, we’re engaging in conversations with the students and the school district about the concern of vaping related illness, and the health and social consequences for students.”
Reese said a focus of the presentations is awareness. “In the older grades we talked about awareness last year,” said Reese. “So, general awareness, what is it? What does it look like? How do people spend their time? Who do they spend their time with? What are the student’s aspirations later in life? With the seventh graders, we are talking about general awareness and about impacts on the body. And about goals – what are people’s goals now and for the future. And how does the addictive properties of nicotine play into young people’s decision-making skills or their ability to make decisions they can be proud of.”
The goal according to Bubna is that students understand how bad vaping is and choose to make other choices. “What we’re hoping for is kids who have not started to understand the dangers and not even start,” said Bubna. “We’re also trying to think through for the kids who have been doing this for a while and have an actual addiction to vaping with the amount of nicotine in there – what are some resources and avenues they can pursue if they are looking to quit. Our philosophy is we want to get the information out there and help kids understand the dangers of it. When you look at the decrease of tobacco use amongst youth a lot of that was the kids finally understood this is really, really bad for me, why on earth would I do that. That took a lot of messaging to get that across to kids. Trying to do the same thing with vaping. Trying to help them understand this is not benign, this leaves stuff in your lungs, there are tons of illnesses going around. And the more they see that and hear that the more they’re likely to say – Nah, I’ve got better things to do with my time and money.”
