My name is Rhys Romero and I am going into my sophomore year at Los Lunas High School. This is my first year in Evolvement. A tobacco and nicotine-free school means there are no tobacco products anywhere on school campus, 24 hours 7 days a week. With the 24/7 campaign, we work toward this initiative. This campaign is important because students should feel safe at school and the usage of nicotine products takes this safety away for many students.

I have a lot of opportunities to work with 24/7 this year, and the one I am most excited for is the middle and elementary school presentations. I think these are super important to our movement because if you get through to the kids young enough and educate them, they have less of a likelihood of joining the cycle of addiction. I have an older sister that was an active member in Evolvement and she taught me and my other siblings from a young age how dangerous and addictive nicotine is. I would like to be able to make this impact on other younger kids in my community, and having the opportunity to do that by educating them would mean so much to me.

Everyone should care about a tobacco and nicotine-free school because we need to keep youth out of the environment where everyone is using these products. Of course the addiction is bad, but so are the consequences of the addiction on youth. I have friends that will leave classes for 20-30 minutes to go to the bathrooms and use these products because of their nicotine addictions. During those times, they are missing vital learning time and I have seen good students let their grades slip once they’ve started using nicotine religiously. People need to take this seriously and this is an issue that affects full communities. This is why I hope to get ahead of this by talking to the elementary and middle school students.

1. Blog
2. Aspirations for Middle and Elementary School Presentations by Rhys Romero