Dear Education Leader:

Schools Against Vaping is seeking a three-minute window to share a presentation to your school board, or board of trustees/directors at an upcoming meeting, either online, in-person or to have you present this yourself to your board as an agenda item.

The Schools Against Vaping Team has been making presentations on the national vaping epidemic across the country, offering school boards and boards of trustees an opportunity to join the fight for student body health and/or participate in a class action lawsuit that will ultimately bring funding to districts to help fight this national scourge and bring resources for district cessation programs, designed to restore student body health in public, private, and parochial schools across the USA.

Schools Against Vaping has a two-fold mission:

• Education about the epidemic for schools and communities that are impacted.
• Cessation help for students now addicted to nicotine.

We are engaged on both fronts and welcome help for either or both tracks.

We are in the process of organizing middle schools, high schools, and two-year institutions of learning across the country in order to combat the e-cigarette marketing that is targeted towards teenagers. Recalling my involvement as Mississippi Teacher of the Year with then Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore’s Tobacco Advisory Council in the National Tobacco Settlement of the late 80s, I have described this current unfair targeting of teenagers as “Joe Camel with a different hump.”

The CoVid-19 danger of teenage vapers revealed in recent Stanford University research mandates that this work now become a priority for our schools. Whether attending school in person or complying with distance learning mode, teenagers who vape are 5 times as likely to contract COVID-19. If they have vaped in the last 30 days, the risk factor increases to 7 times as likely. We must act now to help our students.

The Schools Against Vaping attack on the national teenage vaping epidemic has a three-tiered focus:

• Classrooms
  • Provide academic support through Stanford University curriculum guide to education/cessation
  • Offer student peer leadership and encouragement through our student program, LifeSAV’ers
  • Give guidance on cessation/education programs for students via AAFP Tar Wars
• Boardrooms
  • Partner with Organizations that sign on as friends of education, including:
  • William Carey University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine
  • Mississippi State Board of Health
  • American Association of Pediatrics
  • National School Boards Association
  • Partner with individuals who sign on as friends of education, including SAV Advisory Council Members, including but not limited to:
  • Jennifer Goodwin/National School Nurses Association
  • Orrin Berry/School Resource Officer/ D.A.R.E. Program
  • Miranda Beard, President Emeritus/National School Boards Association
  • Dr. Melissa Stephens/Academy of Family Physicians
  • Dr. John Gaudet/American Association of Pediatrics
  • Marsha Smith/Association of Community College Trustees
• Courtrooms
  • Legislation in state legislative bodies
  • Seek funding for cessation and education programs to restore student body health through a class action lawsuit for schools lodged by Napoli Shkolnik Law Firm, PLLC

Please email us at [email protected] and let us know when you can schedule a Schools Against Vaping presentation for your school board, to review the dangers of the teenage vaping epidemic and to discuss your district’s involvement in the effort to restore student body health.

Feel free to peruse and share our website SchoolsAgainstVaping.org and help us rid our country of this national scourge, originally proposed to be an easy exit from traditional cigarettes. In this case, the cure is definitely worse than the cause! Stay safe and best wishes on this challenging school year.

Appreciatively yours,

Michael Marks, National Executive Director

Schools Against Vaping