AASA and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

AASA and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids co-host an important webinar on “What Superintendents Need to Know about Ending the Youth E-Cigarette Epidemic and Reducing Youth Tobacco Use”

E-cigarettes are hooking a new generation of kids, thanks to thousands of kid-friendly flavors, slick marketing, and massive doses of nicotine. This dangerous epidemic is putting millions of kids at risk and threatens decades of hard-fought progress in reducing youth tobacco use. And it’s getting worse each day.

As schools re-open this fall for in-person instruction, superintendents must again turn their attention towards mitigating the e-cigarette addiction experienced by far too many students. While the data suggests the use of e-cigarette products has decreased this year the health ricks of vaping in schools has increased dramatically in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Disciplining our way out of this problems is not possible given the prevalence and the intense addiction that many students are experiencing. We need federal, state and local efforts to keep these products out of the hands of students, deter predatory marketing practices, and make these products less appealing for kids.

In this webinar, participants will hear from the Caroline Goncalves Jones, Director of Advocacy and Outreach, for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids about current youth tobacco use, the efforts underway to address it and how superintendents can get involved.  Participants will also hear from Dr. Cosimo Tangorra, Jr., Superintendent of the Niskayuna Central School District, NY about the action his district has taken to address youth tobacco use and the partnerships that have made a difference to this work.