July 24, 2013 Board Meeting

As always, these are my opinions only, and not the opinions of the Pendleton County School Board or any other individual board members.

We had our first reading on policies on tobacco usage in our district.  Having designated outside smoking areas is a step in the right direction.  Ideally, I would like Pendleton County’s schools, campuses, and all related school events to be 24/7 tobacco free.  There are several reasons I would like to see this become a reality.  First, Kentucky is one of the unhealthiest states in the country.  Kentucky ranks 48th in child obesity, with 37.1% of our children considered overweight or obese.  Couple this with high smoking rates in Kentucky, and we are setting our children up for a lifetime of health issues.  Kentucky spends a great deal of their current state budget funding these chronic health problems.  Money spent on these health problems would be better spent on the education of our students.  Recently, a mother in the district called me and told me that her daughter got several bladder infections this past year because she felt as if she couldn’t use the restrooms at the high school.  She would not go to the bathroom all day because she didn’t want to go into the restrooms and come out smelling like smoke.  In fact, several of my son’s buddies communicated this same concern.  This is sad because the lack of enforcement of our policies is affecting the health of our students.  My question is who is in control of the restrooms at our schools?  It isn’t the non-smoking students who follow the rules, because they can’t use the restroom without smelling like smoke.  It isn’t the school administration who turns a blind eye to it.  The people who are in control of the restrooms are the students who decide to break the rules and see no consequences.