High school students celebrated for smoke-free initiative

CLARKSVILLE — Several high school students in the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System were celebrated Tuesday afternoon for their achievement in promoting a healthy, smoke-free initiative at Veterans Plaza and the Public Library.

Signage around the library property will now promote a voluntary, smoke-free environment, encouraged by the students from Northwest and Rossview high schools through a County Commission resolution last spring.

Joey Smith, director of the Montgomery County Health Department, said the work that led to Tuesday's brief ceremony was a year in the making. "Today is an exciting day ... a day we've been waiting for, for about a year," Smith said.

County Mayor Jim Durrett said the high school students and their commitment to a healthier community "represent the future of Montgomery County." He congratulated both the NWHS Health Science Academy and RHS Media Arts Academy for their specific and collaborative roles in the smoke-free initiative.

In April the students collectively went before the County Commission to present their plan for reducing the volume of tobacco smoke people are exposed to on county property. Smith said they prepared, and their presentation was "professional, thorough, and spot-on."

"We know that 20 percent of the population smokes, and 100 percent of us breathe," Smith said, explaining that the student-led initiative will generate awareness of the health hazards and reduce smoke exposure in public spaces.

Smith said the schools' collaboration with the Health Department began with a phone call from Constance Brown of the NWHS faculty, in August 2015. He said the project used evidence-based data on the ills of smoking, with "findings and facts that are sound." Political science and speech faculties helped the students polish and present their resolution to commissioners.

NWHS senior De'Shaun Dail, 17, was quoted in the report, saying, "Imagine this .. a woman wants her children to want to love to read, so she takes her kids to read Dr. Seuss ... at the library," but said their experience is made far less enjoyable by a cloud of unhealthy tobacco smoke as they enter.

It's these scenarios that the students want to eliminate, to foster healthier public spaces.

Reach Business Editor Jimmy Settle at 931-245-0247 and on Twitter @settle_leaf.