With the press for schools to improve academic achievement, sometimes there's little energy and time left to address wellness issues, including nutrition, physical activity, stress management and tobacco prevention. Still, best practice approaches and a growing body of research show that health promotion and wellness interventions help to increase academic success for schools.

Arika Bell has her own story to tell about how school wellness and tobacco prevention helped increase her connection to school. As a middle school student who smoked, Arika spent her free time hanging out and smoking with other students who felt less connected to school than they did to their tobacco use habit and the peers with whom they smoked. After getting caught smoking on campus, which is a violation of district policy, Arika's mom contacted Pam Hancock, Youth Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Specialist at the Jefferson County Department of Health and Environment (JCDHE) for ideas to help Arika change her behaviors and beliefs about tobacco use. Given the opportunity to do a middle school internship with Pam and the Tobacco Prevention Initiative staff,
Arika now has a powerful story to tell.

"The reason I got the internship is because I got caught at school smoking and I got suspended for three days," explains Arika. "I was 12 when I tried my first cigarette. I had no idea what I was putting in my body and what I was doing to it by smoking. I later found out what was in tobacco." Like other youth who smoke, Arika was stunned to learn that a burning cigarette dumps lung damaging tar, and the very same chemicals found in rat poison, floor cleaner and many other toxic products into the smoker's system and the environment around them. These ingredients are not required to be listed on the packaging of tobacco products even though they seriously impact the health of those who smoke and the people inhaling the secondhand smoke generated by cigarettes. Arika was particularly surprised and alarmed by the fact that secondhand smoke exposure contributes to cancer in pets because they breathe air filled with secondhand smoke and lick their toxin-ridden fur.

In addition to learning about the health effects of tobacco and secondhand smoke, Arika states, "I now know that it's against the state law and the Jefferson County Schools' policy for not only students like myself, but also for teachers and visitors to use any type of tobacco on school property or at school events. As a tobacco-free teen, when I see other teens smoking, I wonder if they know what is in those tiny cancer sticks. I want to tell teens at other schools what is in tobacco and let them know about the Jefferson County Schools Policy. I hope to inspire other teens to quit smoking."

Arika isn't alone. There is a growing group of teens and adults who are taking steps to help teens quit and gain life-long health and wellness behaviors. For one of Arika's internship projects she worked with Hancock and Erin Carrell, JCDHE secondhand smoke specialist, to counter the tobacco industry's tactics by conducting a Kick Butts Day (KBD) activity at her school. Every year around the end of March, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids encourages youth to conduct KBD activities across the United States in order to fight against the tobacco industry which pumps more than 14 billion dollars a year into advertising their deadly products. In Colorado alone, tobacco companies spend more than 4 million dollars per week on advertisements and displaying their products that are strategically placed at the eye level of youth. After learning more about how the tobacco industry targets youth, Arika became outraged. When she read through some of the once-hidden documents of the tobacco industry, including a statement made by a Philip Morris (Marlboro) executive, that "Today's teenager is tomorrow's potential regular customer," Arika decided to take action.

In honor of this year's Kick Butts Day on March 28, 2007, Arika and fifty of her classmates conducted an advocacy activity known as a "graffiti wall". Students spent time learning more about the tobacco industry's deception and manipulation as well as the health effects of tobacco consumption and exposure to secondhand smoke. Using a wall-sized poster, the youth expressed their outrage to the tobacco companies. Covered with potent messages like, "Hey, big tobacco, you may have killed my uncle, but you won't kill me," and pictures of grave markers reading "Rest In Peace Big Tobacco," the graffiti wall poster will remain on display for a short time at the Jeffco Open School for all to see. Ultimately, the students will mail the graffiti wall poster to the corporate headquarters of a major tobacco company.