Hello, my name is Rayna Baca and I go to Health Leadership High School. This is my first year as a youth advocate for Evolvement and one of the campaigns we work on is 24/7. In 24/7 we work to get schools all over New Mexico to be 100% tobacco-free 24 hours a day 7 days a week, not only on school property but also at school events.

Some things we do to work with these schools is educate them. One way I did this was through an event called Take Down Tobacco Day. During this event we collected surveys from students and educated the school on the harm of tobacco especially on youth and the reasons we believe it should not be allowed on school property. We set up and hosted our own booth with a game that also gave students facts about tobacco use and how harmful it can be to our bodies and minds. Anyone who took a survey could play the game and win free prizes and swag. Doing this event taught me that alot of our students don’t know the effects of tobacco and they were excited to learn about it. It also showed me that there are others I go to school with that agree with what we stand for and would want to help to make a difference within our schools.

I believe this is important because without tobacco in schools it can leave more room for learning and students will be able to focus more on school. A tobacco free environment will also cut down on peer pressure by students not being pressured to try nicotine products. By having a school that is nicotine free, students would not be bullied for not using harmful and popular products. Overall school should be a place of comfort and everyone should be able to enjoy their school experience.

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2. The Importance of Tobacco-Free Schools