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Washington Breathes is gathering information about resources available to middle and high schools to assist students who are using commercial tobacco products and who are dependent on nicotine. Through this survey, we hope to better understand cessation resources or programs that schools are utilizing, as well as identify needs and barriers. We recognize that many schools are struggling with the amount of youth vaping and nicotine use, and want to understand what supports are needed.

Washington Breathes and the Rutgers Center for Rapid Surveillance of Tobacco are asking educators to complete a simple survey to help us gather photos of products and information about the amounts of e-cigarettes, vape pens, cigarettes, oral nicotine pouches, and other commercial tobacco products from students that have accumulated in your school or school district.

You’d think that school administrators would be quite healthy. You walk countless steps in hallways, classrooms, and common areas throughout the day and often into the evening. You’re surrounded by curriculum that touts self-discipline. You observe teaching practices that help make tasks manageable. You understand how important movement is for our bodies and brains. Despite having tools and information for being healthy, many of us fall short of our ideal health markers, such as low cholesterol, ideal blood pressure and resting heart rate, ideal nutrition, and consistent movement.

Since 2017, with the help of a grant from the King County Academy of Family Physicians, they have reached nearly 10,000 students in grades 9-12 at more than two dozen Washington State high schools. The presentation has been vetted by Lisa Love, Director of Health Curricula for Seattle Public Schools. The Superintendents of the Tacoma and Edmonds school districts recommend it to their health instructors and it has been enthusiastically received by students, teachers, and administrators. Administrators and teachers at Edmonds are working to make education on firearm injury prevention a standard part of the health curriculum.

The goal for safe communities, and protecting our loved ones, is common ground, a goal around which all of us can rally. It is a goal and worry that can keep us up at night. The violence that can harm our community members is tragic to experience and unpleasant to think about. Understanding and implementing solutions to that violence is also upsetting -- but necessary.