High School Assembly; Be Active North Carolina

I don't know if you're going to be able to do it, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do it, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do it, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do it, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do it, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do it, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do it, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do it, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do it, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do it, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do it, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do it, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do it, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do it, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do it, but I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do it. You already know that exercise

is good for your health and smoking is not, but in North Carolina, some of the health statistics of young people suggest that message may not be getting through. Stay tuned for an eye -opening discussion live on the next high school assembly. Closed captioning of this program on UNCTV is made possible in part by a grant from the FM Kirby Foundation. This program is made possible in part by contributions from UNCTV viewers like you. Hello everyone and welcome to today's high school

assembly, I'm Shannon Vickery. Did you know that North Carolina teenagers are two to three times more likely to be obese than other kids in the nation? And did you know that smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in our state? Well some sobering facts to start off today show, but the good news is that there is a lot that middle and high school students can do to stay in good health or to improve their health right now. And on today's high school assembly we'll try to uncover some things that you may not know about physical fitness and tobacco use and how they could impact your future quality of health. And here today to join in our conversation is Doritha Brock, a youth in schools field coordinator with the physical education and nutrition unit of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Jamie Willoughby, the girls basketball coach and health fitness instructor at Tarborough High School. Casey Collins, who is a senior at Tarborough High School. Paula Collins, the senior advisor for the Healthy Schools at the North Carolina Department of Public

Instruction. And Margaret Breik, who's with the North Carolina Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Welcome to you all. And I'd also like to welcome our studio audience today. They are students from Phillips Middle School and Jordan High School. Welcome to you all as well. And you can join in today's conversation as well. And to do that all you need to do is calling your questions at 1 -800 -555 -3120. Or you can thanks us your questions at 919 -549 -7070. Some very startling statistics to begin the program with today that North Carolina teenagers are two to three times more likely than other kids in the state to be obese. Paula, why should the students in our audience students throughout North Carolina be concerned about these types of statistics? Why should we all be concerned about these types of statistics? We want our students to be the healthiest students throughout the country. We know that preventing health problems will go much further than

trying to intervene and treat them. And if our students are healthy in educating the whole child, we know that they will score better on the test. And they will eventually lead to a healthy award for us, which will benefit our entire state and economy. Doretha, you are involved in a program, Be Active North Carolina. How is that targeting some of the students that are here with us today? Well, Be Active North Carolina is a North Carolina initiative, hence the name Be Active. And it's for adults and youth as well. And particularly interesting initiative is called Be Active Kids, which encourages youth through some daycare settings on up to be very active and to eat healthy as well. And there are some initiatives for adults as well. Jamie, you are in the high schools. You see a lot of the students in North Carolina. How serious are they about getting enough physical activity and about using staying away from tobacco products? Some of the students will participate

with no problem at all because they enjoy athletics, they enjoy sports, they enjoy just learning more about other sports that they may not be used to play. But others you can tell are used to sitting around the sedentary lifestyle and probably those are more of the ones who are protecting other tobacco products, etc. Let's take a look at one of the statistics that we have for you today. Showing some of the trends concerning teenagers and physical activity and tobacco use. The first one that we're going to talk about today is that North Carolina ranks 39th in the nation on the health and well -being of children. Paula, do you find this a surprising statistic? It is surprising and it's sad. We know that a lot of efforts have gone into place to increasing the health of our children. One way through activity and we know that helps brain development and brain research shows us that this

will encourage our young people to perform better, which when they think of school they think of tests and courses. What we want to look at is when you address the entire child we want them to be fit, healthy and ready to learn. And at the same time we want their teachers to be fit, healthy and ready to teach. Casey, you are a student at Turbo High School. First of all tell us a little bit about your activities that you're involved with with athletics and sports. Well, at Turbo High School I play volleyball, basketball, soccer and I run a little track. You do a lot. Why don't you and your friends think it's important to be physically active, to be involved in athletics? Well, from my point of view, I do athletics to stay busy. It keeps me busy and it keeps me out of trouble. And the more that I have to do at the school, then I can't hang out with my friends and can't get into the trouble that I would probably get into if I weren't doing athletics. Margaret, another whole component of this is part

of being physically fit, part of being healthy is not smoking. What trends are you all seeing as part of your program with tracking and with trying to detour you smoking? Well, within our branch we have seen that over the last six years that there has been a steady increase in teen smoking in our state. That alarms us tremendously. And we've done some work with Paula's department to kind of document that. Last year we did conduct the U tobacco survey, which did say that rates are increasing among teens. And so we need everyone working together on this problem to try to reduce that trend. Tell us about a specific program that you have aimed at trying to get kids not to smoke or to use tobacco products. I understand it's the too cool to smoke or spit campaign. Tell us a little bit about that. The too cool to smoke or spit campaign actually came about because of the information that came out of the U tobacco survey. What it presented was

an opportunity for folks to come together across the state to talk about the problem of teen tobacco use. So Governor Hunt hosted the first summit on teen tobacco use prevention this past January in Charlotte. And there were over 800 adults and teens there from school delegations and also from community groups to talk about the problem and to discuss some potential solutions. Great. Well we have our first caller of the afternoon. Caller are you there this afternoon? And what is your question or comment for our guest today? I wonder what do teenagers think is cool to smoke? That is probably a very good question. Casey let's start with you. The kids in your school who smoke. Why do you think that they do it? I think because they're friends, they're hang around, they're probably doing it and so they're curious and so they're like why I should not try that or I can be cool like them if I smoke. But it's not really that way. It's not supposed to be that way.

I'm curious for our audience here. How many of you if you would raise your hand? No people, friends of yours who smoke or use tobacco products. If you could just raise your hands. How many of you have friends? A good many of you. Why do you think that the people that you know, the people in your school, why do you think that they smoke or use tobacco products? Anyone want to hazard a guess? Yes. I definitely think of the main reason why most high school students smoke is definitely peer pressure. Like she was saying earlier, they want to fit in with their friends. You know, you don't ever want to be outcast, you know, with your friends. The only one that's not smoking, you know, they're probably not going to want to be around you and all that, but it's wrong. It shouldn't do it, but that's how it is. And one of our statistics that we have this afternoon deals with tobacco use more than 18 % of middle school students and more than 38 % of high school students are current users of a tobacco product. Paula, does that surprise you from what you were able to learn from the tobacco,

the youth tobacco serving? From the tobacco survey, we had anticipated that there would be an increase in use in our statistics show that we are trying to work together to show young people that if they experiment sometimes with tobacco, they think, oh, this won't become a habit or I can stop it anytime. And we're finding that because it is addictive that that is not the case. When I attended the two cool to smoke respect conference, I had some young people say, why do you adults always target young people to get them not to smoke, you never say anything to adults? Well, it's interesting to see that it is our young people that you begin smoking at your age or middle school and high school. You don't see a lot of adults that all of a sudden decide, I think I'll start trying tobacco. So prevention is the key not to start at this age. We have another caller on the line from Camp Lejeune, caller, what is your question or comment for our audience today? Yes, ma 'am.

What is your question? I'm in the Marine Corps and I think that if those kids got into like a good ROTC program or something like that, they'd take their mind off of that and they'd be all right. Great. Well, thank you for calling in with your comment today. Doretha, how does physical activity and kids being physically fit? Does that have any relationship whatsoever with kids who use tobacco products? Yes, it does. Actually, there's a really large study that was done that was published in the Journal of School Health. It says that kids that are physically active tend not only to have better grades, less behavioral problems, but also tend not to smoke or drink alcohol. So there is a correlation definitely. And Doretha, right now, on average, are enough North Carolina kids getting out there being active, getting physically fit, spending the time that they need to on the types of activities that will make them strong and

productive adults? Actually, now that like the statistic, you just post it, but there's also another study that's showing that as the kids get older, the less physically active they are. And the more involved they are in computer games, spending time on the phone with their friends in front of the TV or the computer. So it does get worse as they get older. We have a caller now from Henderson, who has a question or comment about exercise this afternoon. Call her what's your question or comment for us? Hello. My question is, wait, I don't want to say please. I think we'll come back to that caller. We have another caller on the line this afternoon. Call her what's your question for us today or your comment? Hello. Hello. Yes. What's your question or comment? My comment is about the cartoons showing the characters smoke and cigarette. It was on Jetson this past week. He walks in and takes cigarette as boss mouth and takes a circle around his nose.

And it's like a macho image they show. And I think it's wrong to have it on cartoons because it shows these little kids that if you take a cigarette you could be macho and cool. Great. Thank you so much for calling in with that comment. We have. Well, we certainly appreciate hearing from Fort Bragg this afternoon as well. Thanks so much for calling in. And we have another statistic regarding tobacco use and with teenagers and if we could go to that graphic you will see that almost 22 % of all middle school students who current and 41 % of high school students who currently use tobacco report owning something with a tobacco company name or logo on it. Now Doretha you're shaking your head saying I can understand that why is it there seem to be a relationship between kids who own something with a tobacco manufacturer manufacturers logo on it and those who smoke why why are you shaking your head there. Well, I'll just give just my personal opinion but I know Margaret

can probably speak more to it but the logos are very colorful and cartoony and very attractive. But that be my opinion. Margaret what do you find when you're talking to students about tobacco use do you talk to them about what they see on television and some of these images like our caller was talking about and what do they say. Yes, we found that in some of our coalition areas where they actually do you tobacco prevention programs that a lot of the young people do have items that have tobacco logo information on it and they do wear them. I think advertising does have an impact on students certainly does in terms of the types of sneakers that we wear the clothes that we wear and I don't think that tobacco products are any different from that. And I think even from the smallest kids there was one study that showed that kids and youngest six years old recognize the Joe Campbell symbol even more than Mickey Mouse. So it is definitely impacting on teens and

persuading the use of certain types of tobacco products. We have another caller on the line caller what's your question or comment for us this afternoon. I want to know why they sell tobacco products. Unfortunately I don't think that's a question that we could answer here today but we certainly appreciate you calling in and adding to our discussion. Coach Willoughby I'm wondering what do you hear from your athletes as far as what they are seeing among themselves or their peers as far as tobacco use. I guess I've been fortunate with the girls that I've coached but that has not really been that big of a problem. I'm not going to say that I haven't had any that have done that because I'm sure I have but I try to keep them as busy as I can after school. We have study hall before we have practice then we have practice for an hour and a half so you know I keep a lot of their time is at school. Part of the reason is because I think there's more time that they are spending their school

even with the team working on team bonding, homework, practice and things like that. It gives them less time to bat on the streets getting in trouble. By the time they get home from practice most of the time they're tired it's time to eat, talk on the phone or friends homework, go to bed. Hopefully that has cut down on a lot of it but like I said I guess I've been fortunate to have a good group of girls to be coached so I really haven't had that to be a big problem. You are fortunate. Let's talk to our audience here for a moment here in our studio. How many of you are athletes? Raise your hands. What kind of sports do you play? What type of activities do you like to do? Jump rope. That's a good one. How about you? Swimming. Oh good. Now we had a hand up back here. What's your favorite type of physical activity? Basketball. Lots of different ones up here. We have a fellow back here. If I can get to you. What's your favorite type of activity? Good ball. That's a good one. How about you? Across. Oh that's a great one. Now tell me why do you guys do this? Why do you

think that it's important that you're involved in these activities? Yes ma 'am. To stay fit. And why is it important to stay fit? So you can run a lot and do to have a lot of education and be good at something. Sounds good. How about the rest of you? Why do you stay fit? Let's see if I could reach back here. One more time if you could come a little closer sir. To have fun, play your friends, play as a team. Why is it fun? What do these activities do that are fun for you? They help you in your movement of motion strong in different ways and keep your grades up. Good answer. Good answer. And you know we do. There are a lot of statistics on how exercise helps you and helps you in your life. And we have another statistic on North Carolina and on how these activities help our students. We found that North Carolina kids are less flexible, have a higher percentage of body fat and poor cardiovascular fitness than

other children nationally. Dorita you have been studying a lot of this with the active North Carolina from what you have heard from our audience members today. Why is it important for kids to get out there and are kids in our schools getting enough physical activity? Well if kids are physically active, when they are young, they are more likely to be physically active as adults. And in adulthood we know we worry about cardiovascular disease, different types of heart disease, blood pressure, etc. as well as diabetes and stroke. So we know that people that are physically active tend to reduce their risk factors for those very serious chronic diseases. So that is one of the things that my area is really concerned about is reducing those risk factors now and hopefully prevent it later on. We have got another statistic here that only 55 % of high school students report getting vigorous physical activity for 20 or more minutes. And that is for about three days a week and the national average is

64 % in North Carolina. Only 55 % of North Carolina high school students report getting vigorous physical activity. Why is the Department of Public Instruction concerned about this? Well with the helpful living curriculum there is a one year graduation requirement for health and physical education. Oftentimes we find that our senior high students complete this requirement in their ninth grade year. And unless there is an elective, they usually do not take another physical education or health education class. Many of our young people here today have indicated their athletes in their own team sports. And if you think about another content area such as math, we learn the formulas in class but we have homework because we can't possibly learn it all in the classroom instruction time. So in physical education if we are taught the skills for lifetime wellness then we should practice those. Look at the adult population, we work but we try to exercise before work or after work. So activity is really

important. The other competing information is in our five and a half hour classroom day we find that we do not have enough time allocated at elementary, middle school or high school for daily physical activity. And it's important that we look at other ways to keep our young people active. And taking off from the comment of the Marine about ROTC any type of team activity is great for us to keep our activity whether it's band or ROTC. But let's don't confuse that with meeting the standard course of study objectives and health and physical education. These activities do not meet that criteria. However they're great for us to continue activity and we need a variety. So the schools can't do everything, I think they can be the framework in which we can enhance that. Great, we've got another caller this afternoon calling them from Goldsboro. Call her what's your question today for our panel? I was wondering does they involve this for keep you clear away from does and smoking then it does like the TV. Good question. Who would like to tackle this Margaret?

Any statistics that you've all seen from folks who are involved in an athletic event or with physical activity? Deturing the use of cigarettes and perhaps even drug use. I think as Dorita has said also that it does help because when you are physically active participating in sports and other after school physical activities then that limits the time that you have to do other things. And certainly if you're doing that then you're less likely to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol or do drugs or any of those kinds of things as well. So I think it definitely has a positive influence. Casey do you find that as well among your friends the ones who are really active and involved in sports like you that it keeps you away from some of these other things? Yes ma 'am, it takes most of your time doing sports so it keeps you away from those drugs and stuff like that. You're a daily afternoon. How long are you usually practicing or involved in athletics after school? Well usually

about three and a half hours after school or if I don't have a game or something I'm practicing basketball if I have a soccer game that night I shoot around and then I go home and go to sleep and come back for the game that night. So it does keep you very busy. Paul you wanted to answer something. Just one comment the athletes that I often talk to do not even think about using substances tobacco or other drugs because they do not want to deter their performance. They want it to be enhanced and with the Olympics this summer there's been a lot of talk about the dedication of these athletes and students put into reaching their goals. So if I was an active athlete I would not want to do anything that would keep my performance from being the best that it could be. Great. We have another caller on the line this afternoon from Trenton. What is your question or comment for our guest this afternoon? Caller are you there? What's your question for us? I like them now.

What did they book it and get the pen to flash? I think unfortunately I don't think that we could hear that I think the question had to do with students getting suspended from school for smoking and unfortunately that doesn't really fall within the purview of our program today but we certainly appreciate you asking that we have another caller from Fayetteville. Caller what's your question this afternoon? I have a comment. I have two elementary students here in Fayetteville and they tell me they have physical education one day a week and they very rarely ever have recess. They mildest one tells me it's been like a couple months since they've had recess and I just don't see how the schools can expect the children to focus. They focus and learn an entire day without going outside, running off some of their access energy, getting some exercise and children just can't focus like that and I don't understand how they can expect them to. Coach Willoughby, what

you're shaking your head over here is both of you two work. I know in elementary school they are giving recess and they are with a PE teacher I think about once a week. I know they are in our county it may be twice but I think it's once a week. They go on up to the middle school and pretty much in middle school the classes are so big they don't have to dress out they don't have to participate because there's so many in the class. If they want to they don't they don't they sit socialized so when they come to us in the high school it's even harder for us to try to get them to dress out and to participate because by then they develop the idea where they're not interested in athletics or learning of sports of any kind. So they've already kind of got that sedentary lifestyle already forming and then when they come to us in the high school it's hard especially with only one PE credit before they have to graduate you know it's hard to get them active for that one PE credit that they've got to have. Paula you're shaking your head. I'll make a comment to the parent. Keep in mind that the State Board of Education has set the

standard course of study and we would love to see daily physical activity especially at the elementary level and all levels but as I mentioned earlier the competing time for the core content areas and the testing issue. I think it's important if you as a parent realize it is a local decision each school board each school system and there's 117 in our state can make their own allocations for time limit while it is required to be covered the state does not indicate an amount of time. I totally agree I think it's unrealistic for young people to be in school all day and not have any activity and to remind you there's a difference between recess and physical education they need both they need time to rest as you young people know stress is one of the biggest things facing them now they have all these pressures to perform academically and to be the top and everything so it's important that we have time for activity as well as time to de -stress. How about you folks how many of you feel stressed throughout the day is that is that something that

a lot of hands go off when I ask that question and how do you feel stressed and how do you think physical activity might help that? Well like you get stressed when you're in class and you have that test that you have to do and five teachers want you to turn in your paper in the same day and PE might help you like work off some of that tension you know and like also when you were talking about the like the lack of time to do drugs it's not always the lack of time because if someone really wanted to get into that sort of thing they could it's more like peer pressure that way too you know like if you're hanging around people that do drugs you're more likely a want to do them and if you're hanging around people that are athletic and fit and do drugs. If you don't really feel the need to do drugs then you're probably not going to want to do them. Do you find a lot of people in your school a lot of the kids do they put a priority on being fit and getting physical activity and going out and participating in gym and doing those sorts of things? Well I'm in the marching man so most of the people I hang out with are in the marching man so a lot of them don't smoke you know only because well it's kind of hard to

you know be able to have that sort of fitness you know and be able to go through all that and smoke and the other like the other people that I do know they really don't stress it because you only have to like she said you only have to have that one credit and if you get a 70 in your PE class well that's your credit so why you know stress it so much. Well thank you very much I think we had another comment there was a young lady with her hand up over on the other side of the room. Well I wanted to comment on something that you said about the one PE credit. I know that in Europe they require that you have PE every single year before you graduate and still there's like a PE test that you have to pass to actually get your diploma and I think that if that was taken like if that happened in North Carolina a lot more people would be out and PE and like getting fit again. Great. Good comment. Let's turn a little bit to smoking now and we have a statistic that 33 North Carolinians die every day

from diseases caused by cigarette smoking. That's one in every five deaths contributed to smoking and smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in North Carolina and we have a caller on the phone who'd like to call in with a question or comment about smoking. Caller what is your comment or question for us this afternoon. Well I want to know why they sell cigarettes it's going to kill you. I think we had this question before unfortunately we cannot answer that today that's outside the purview of our program. But does that statistic surprise you in the audience to hear that one in five deaths in North Carolina caused by smoking? You're shaking your head. Why are you shaking your head? Why doesn't that surprise you? Because a lot of people know that because it's been said just about everywhere and you go through health class and they teach it to you there. It's on TV how bad it is for you. Coaches

and teachers tell you that and it's just about everywhere you go. Do you think that kids understand that? Do you think they listen to it or is it just something that they're being told in health class and they don't pay much attention to? I think they hear it but some just don't listen. Mark, why do you think that we see this? Where kids are obviously hearing these statistics and they're learning that smoking is bad for you in their health classes, in their PE classes. Why is the message not getting through to them? I think one of the reasons is because the effects of smoking is long term. You start smoking today and you may develop a tobacco related illness years down the road you may be much older. For a younger person to hear those kinds of statistics, it really doesn't affect them directly. It's not like they're going to die tomorrow or they're going to have lung cancer next year. It's a very long term process but I think

what we all need to realize and what we are finding out is that it's just as hard for teens to quit smoking as it is for adults. From the Youth Tobacco Survey, we found that in both middle school and high school, more than 50 % of the students are addicted. They want to quit and almost 65 % have tried at least once and was not successful. So it's very addictive to young people and it's very difficult to quit. I think that's one of the things that teens need to understand that it is once you start, it's hard to quit. Even for teenagers who are just social smokers, it's very easy to become addicted. Even if you are a social smoker, the likelihood that you will remain that is very low. And by social smoker, we're meaning somebody who is just occasional youth. Why do you think that we are seeing such high

statistics with teenagers and tobacco here in North Carolina, here in our state? I think one of the things that we have to do more, I think, and we don't have the resources in our state to do all that needs to be done to combat this problem. If you look at states that have had success in reducing teen smoking, Florida, Massachusetts, California, they have resources totally dedicated to teen tobacco prevention. And the programs are comprehensive, they're well coordinated, they're in all aspects of the community. They're in schools, they're in community programs, they're everywhere. And we just have not had the resources to touch every school in the state, to touch every community organization that's working on this issue. So we definitely need to have more resources dedicated to that. Governor Hunt does support in the tobacco settlement to have a health trust established. And from that health trust, to have a percentage of funds dedicated strictly to preventing teen tobacco use. And when we're talking about tobacco use, we're

talking about more than cigarette. We're also talking about smokeless tobacco products as well. Exactly. We have seen from the Youth Tobacco Survey that it is not just cigarette smoking, but it is smokeless tobacco or spit tobacco, which is the more common name. It's also cigars, which is very interesting. That was very surprising. So we do have youth in our state who smoke cigars. And some of them may see those types of tobacco products as less riskier than cigarettes, but actually they are not. Because with all of them come health risk. And Dorita, as we were talking about earlier with the tobacco products, a lot of this, if you start smoking now, you may not see the effects until you reach adulthood. I'm sure it's probably the same for exercise and physical activity. If you're not getting enough as a middle school or high school student, how does that affect you later in life? As Margaret was saying, it may take years, 20, 30 years down the road for a

teen. The average age for the onset of diabetes and heart disease is around 45 to 55. So if you can imagine for someone to think, what am I doing today and how is it going to affect me 30 years from now? It's a really tough choice, especially if you have pure pressure that's encouraging you to play videos or to let's go chat on the internet or go out and have a cigarette. So I think it may be difficult for teens, but parents can have a huge impact on that in communicating with their kids verbally and as role models. And which I know that can be difficult because we think the community resources, the school should do something, but parents can be involved too. If there's not physical activity at school, can we as parents go out after school with our kids and take a walk after dinner? And no, be a good time for bonding. In policy and environmental changes, another thing that be active in North Carolina is really adamant about is causing changes in the way we live, for example, what our student listed about was happening over in Europe. And so that

our universe, our country says this is important and we will have these policies in place so that everybody can be active and be healthy and have a smoke -free environment. We've got another caller on the line from New Hanover County this afternoon. Call her what's your question or comment for our panel this afternoon. Yes, I'm calling in regards to the recess the children are not having in some of the county. As a parent of two children in New Hanover County, I have noticed a lack of PE and physical activity with more emphasis being placed on standardized testing. A lot of demands on the teacher and student, which I think is causing an enormous amount of stress on the students, which is a carryover into the high school, which maybe I feel a result of some of the drug use way problems. I think we're trying to do good as a state to improve, but I think also some of this is

maybe backfiring where the accelerated reading program is pushed so much that I think some children have so much stress with the reading and the enormous amount of pressure being put on to do well with these tests and to make the numbers for the schools that the children really don't have time to be children. They are reading two hours a night, just a lot of homework, just a lack of physical activity and time for it. They're not as many hours in the day. We don't know how that is exactly. Well, Collar, thank you so much for bringing that to light. And Paula, if parents have concerns that their kids aren't getting enough physical activity in the schools, is there anything that they can do anyone that they can talk to to perhaps get that changed? Yes. Keep in mind that our parents are our most influential advocates. They should call their school board members. They should look at the curriculum and

make sure if they were as protective of that curriculum being covered as they were the AP chemistry exam, et cetera. Because a lot of times when I work with adults, I hear them say, my mom said health and physical education is not that important, spend more time on your academic subjects. What we know is if our child is totally healthy, those demands on testing, they are going to perform better. And it's when the governor wants us to be first in America, and that's a very wonderful objective to strive for so that we will be the smartest. In fact, look at the universities we have in our area. We have a great opportunity to be there, but we don't want to be so unbalanced. We've got to have a balance of fitness, health, activity, and the testing will come as I mentioned earlier with the stress reduction. So the parents should keep in mind that we do have a standard course of study at the state level, but each school system has local accountability and local control for meeting those objectives. So with those concerns, they should call their school board

and start there. And also look at the principal who has the administrative responsibility for supervising the teachers and evaluating to make sure that they are covering the curriculum in physical education and health education. Great. We have another caller on the line from Durham this afternoon. Call her what you're coming or question for us today. Yes, I'd like to know how many children in the schools around here have parents that smoke. And if so, do they offer programs for those situations or how do they deal with the pressures? Great. Thank you very much. Excellent question. Margaret, do you see that when you're talking to kids throughout the various school districts? Do they see their parents smoking? Is that a concern and a factor for them? Well, some of them have parents or other family members that smoke. What I see is a lot of concern, especially for teenagers who may not smoke, but have family members smoke. And they know about the health risks because they don't want to lose their parents or other people that they

love due to tobacco related diseases. One of the interesting things that we are now hearing about is that some of the schools are now beginning to institute cessation programs. For example, Independence High School in Charlotte has a SWAT club which is students warning against tobacco. And what SWAT has done is did an assessment of the student body and from their assessment found that there were over a hundred students who were interested in quitting. And so now they are looking to implement a program to address that. And we've had a question facts into us this afternoon from someone who is wanting to know specifically if the child is in an environment where they go home and the parents are smoking, what can the child do to kind of not feel pressured to smoke and to encourage their parents not to? Well, our statistics show that if they are in a smoking family they have a greater likelihood to start smoking. I think remember the recycle program that was started in schools, the young people were the ones who really brought it to us older parents that said look how

important this is. I think it's a two -way street. Our young people can say we've learned that this is not healthy for me and not be around the smoke. The size of the stream smoke is harmful. We know asthma has increased and that's the number one reason for absenteeism in our schools. If you're not in school you can't be learning and making those grades. So I think it can work both ways as the role model out of lessons can help the parents and the parents can be a role model as well. The one other comment I wanted to make on what Margaret and Doritha said about the long -term effects of tobacco and inactivity is that it's never too late that we want to encourage our adults that I have been long -term smokers to stop their our cessation programs here as well as we've been one of those couch potatoes for us to get active. So it can be the long -term but at the reverse it's never too late to improve our health status. We have a question now on the phone from Green County this afternoon. Collar what is your question or comment? Yes well I've observed that kids

basically behave based on their examples and the good habits are the result of their good examples of the good examples that are exhibited by other people that they respect. And that goes as well as with their bad habits and that's the result of the bad examples they've been exposed to and peer pressure. And I would hope that the curriculum or something would be included in the curriculum to combat those bad influences. Great. And another thing about exercise you know I've noticed a trend that kids seem to gravitate toward computer games or you know getting on the computer other than you know doing something to exercise. I think that's pretty bad thing and I would hope that the schools would include something to combat that as well. Well thanks for calling in this afternoon

and let's ask our audience how many of you if you could choose between doing something on the computer playing a computer game and going outside and being active and getting some exercise how many of you would choose the computer. Well that's good. Well here a few hands are going up there. How much time do you spend on the computer every day? Do you have any estimation at all? Maybe about half an hour sometimes. And what do you like about do you play computer games or is that doing homework or play games type of homework? What type of games do you like to play? Like word blaster, space games, stuff like that. Why do you think kids would opt to stay inside and play computer games rather than go outside and get some exercise and play there? Well maybe they just want to go outside or they just don't want to be athletic and have any friends or they just want to go outside and play on the computer instead. Great. Well thank you so much.

We have another caller on the line this afternoon. Call her what is your question or comment for them nor would this afternoon. Yes. I want to know what positive influence would a coach give if their star athlete was using drugs or any other type of tobacco? Which will be we're going to put you on the line today if you had one of these players like that which we know that you have not had. What would you tell them? I mean that's tough. I mean you want to do everything you can for the best interest of the kid. You know if it's weather, if it's somebody that they really trust as a coach, maybe the coach could help them get involved in getting some help where you know if the kid sometimes they don't want their parents to know about it but they really got a problem. If they feel comfortable with the coach, maybe the coach could get involved that way where you know they really wouldn't have to tell their parents unless they got to the point they had to. You could sit down with the kid and

tell them you know look you know this may be something you and your parents need to handle and get involved that way. But you know being the star athlete is only going to get you so far in life. They're going to have life after high school. They're going to have life after college and I think that's what you've got to look for is the long range. Go, not just the wins and losses I guess. That's the better way of saying that. Casey how do you think that student athletes are role models for the types of things that your coach is talking about for healthy living, for showing people that if you start exercising now that you're going to have not only a healthy life. It's a lifestyle now while you're in high school but also in the future when you grow up. Well I look at it as when you're out there playing in a basketball game or something or a soccer game whatever type of sport you play. There are younger kids licking at you and they want to be what you are or they want to do what you're doing so you have to make yourself do the right thing.

On the basketball court you have to have a good attitude in front of the young kids because you don't want them to have the same type of attitude that you have if it's bad or anything. And there are younger people always licking at you when you're out there trying to do good for yourself or doing things and you just need to know that and know that in order to help out the younger generation that you need to be a good role model. Doretha how can you on the schools how can communities how can those of us who are working in the communities how can we help these kids become more active and lead healthier lifestyles. Well I think I'm starting with where Paula mentioned is the parents can become involved with how their school system and school operates and voice their concern in their opinion about the number of created hours that spin. In the classroom but in addition the school can be open after hours or offer intramurial sports for their kids to participate in for the kids to go to the school and also for the community to come in and there are

several counties and schools and like in Franklin County the high school is open on the weekends and adults and kids can come in and do pick up basketball. And the soccer fields that are popping up in other communities and you will see them overrun and on Saturdays and Sundays with people wanting to come out and participate and have bicycle lanes and new communities that pop up have sidewalks and wider streets so that people will feel comfortable and easy to go out and walk around the community and get some exercise and not be afraid of cars and dogs and that kind of thing. Can you give us any specific examples of things that communities here in North Carolina have done to promote a healthy healthy living not only for the older adults but also for the younger children. Now or narrowly I guess I would be able to think about a thousand names that will come in one month but you're on the spot either so but there are a number of schools that I can think of that have done just as what I've said that they are opening their schools after hours for the for the

kids to come in and play there may be jump ropes and start jump rope for your heart is a program that was very active in a number of schools across the state. It was a physical activity as well as bringing attention to the kids about cardiovascular disease. A number of schools have thought about can our kids walk to school instead of taking the bus if it's a community school or kids can walk to. So there's a number of things that schools are doing in North Carolina. I just can't think of names right now. That is perfectly fine. It sounds like you've got some good programs going on throughout the state. We have a call now from Fayetteville caller but your question or comment for us this afternoon. Well my comment is unfortunately on the mother of a teen smoker. We were unaware of his smoking for over a year and there are ways to hide it disguises so that we were unaware. We found out later that several adults at the school that

he was going to were aware of this including one of the security officers because they saw him and some friends smoking off the ground. As long as they weren't on there was nothing they could do but no one ever told us the teachers the security officers the adults and other peers need to be aware and make sure that the parents know because the parents don't always know. Well thank you for calling in with that comment and we do have a statistic that shows that every day three thousand US teenagers start smoking three thousand US teenagers starting to smoke every day and of those approximately a thousand will eventually die of a smoking related disease. Margaret to go back to our caller how easy is it and what can a parent do if they suspect their child of smoking. What should they do is this something that's common that the child may be maybe smoking or using smokeless tobacco and the parent may not know it is it

easy to hide. Well in her case yes it was and I think it's we all live busy lives and our kids have as she has said many things that they do in addition to going to school so I say yes that is the possibility but I think what needs to happen is that we need to continue to have open dialogue with other adults with our children about what they do if they're smoking why are they smoking you know what led them to that. One of the things that I just want to mention is that what we believe will help to really curb this problem is to have programs and activities that are really led by you working with adults. Governor Hunt has established a youth advisory team on tobacco use prevention who's charged with developing a plan to reduce teen smoking in half by the year 2010 and there are a lot of school delegations across the state that are working on this issue a lot of community groups we have an African American

youth advisory council that does community interventions to reduce youth access and to try to reach younger children with the tobacco prevention message. So there are a lot of young people and adults already around the state working on this issue working with parents and working with schools. I have a question for our audience here how much influence if you had someone in your school or someone from this youth advisory committee talk to you about smoking and talk to you about tobacco use how much influence would it have on you to have someone your own age talking to you about these issues. I see some hands tentatively going up years was tentatively going up now do you think it would make a difference if you heard from someone your own age about tobacco and in the dangers of tobacco versus perhaps an adult. I think if you have someone your own age you can kind of relate to them in a way and if they're grown up you're kind of like they haven't really dealt with what I have. How

about the rest of you do you think that hearing from someone of your own age will help. Well I think if you're hanging from your own age it's a lot easier to talk to the person but if you're hanging from a grown up or your mom or your dad you can talk to them about the experience they've had and talk about what's happened to them so they can help you get through some things. What do you want as someone who is a teenager what do you want to hear what would deter you from getting involved with smoking and living a healthier lifestyle. Well I would like not to smoke I wouldn't want to smoke ever because I just think not smart thing to do but everything helps you not to smoke. What about the rest of you what do you think that teenagers need to hear to understand that they do need to live a healthy lifestyle and they need to start it now we've got some questions on the other side of the room. Well I think hearing it from another kid your own age it would kind of eliminate some of the peer pressure

and like then you would realize that not everybody your age is smoking and there are some others like me that are kind of tentative you know that wouldn't really want to do it. Great great answer we had another comment. I was just going to say that I think lots of times when adults talk to students and talk to high school students and middle school students they do use a lot of like statistics and you're talking about students know the statistics but it doesn't really sink in because it's just like numbers and if people their own age are talking they can talk about experiences they've had and more like be on a personal level instead of well here's how many thousands of people die because of tobacco use. So what would you like to hear if you could you could sit down and talk to another teenager about smoking about living a healthy lifestyle what do you think they'd want to hear from you and what would you want to hear from them. I think it'd be important to know why if you're talking to someone about non

smoking why it is important to them not smoke and the kind of things that they're doing that make it so it's not even necessary like I don't feel it's even an issue for me. I don't feel the pressure to smoke because the things I do the people I hang out with they're not pressuring me to smoke it's just not something that's in my day to day life that I need I feel like oh I need to smoke to fit in. Paula how does that make you feel when you hear comments like that coming from our students. I like that I think that's great and I do think the peer teachers can give the information in a way that can be better understood instead of feeling like we're trying to say this is how it has to be. One interesting comment that we haven't talked about is how we are in a generation that we want to look young and glamorous and healthy and live a long healthy life. We know that both tobacco use will age us and inactivity was one of the things that we all want to stay young. Exactly so that's one thing that we are having a dream. Well thank you so much unfortunately we have run out of time that's all we have time for for today's discussion. We

would like to thank our guest for being here it's been a great afternoon as well as our studio audience from Philips Middle School and Jordan High School. If you'd like to learn more information on today's high school simply you can contact UNC TV's learning ventures. The number to call is 919 -549 -7161 or you can check out UNC TV's website and you can also find out more about the information about the state program's mission today and you can call those numbers on your screen or check out that website. We want to thank you for spending a part of your afternoon with us we'll see you again on the next high school simply. Close captioning of this program on UNC TV is made possible

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