By AMBROSIA SARABIA, Imperial Valley Press - Staff Writer
Friday, November 18, 2005 3:32 PM PST

Screams could be heard throughout local schools Thursday in honor of the 29th annual Great American Smokeout-Scream Out sponsored by the Imperial County Office of Education Student Well-Being & Family Resources department.

The national event encourages students to learn about tobacco and to scream out against tobacco and for smokers to kick the habit for the day and maybe forever.

Five schools participated in the event pushing an anti-tobacco message as they screamed out against tobacco.

“It’s important to start teaching them when they’re small,” Roberta Raulston, a second-grade teacher at McCabe Elementary School said. “We tell them it is not good for their body.”

McCabe Elementary, which is in the El Centro area, and St. Mary’s Catholic School in El Centro participated in the event as well as Kennedy Gardens Elementary in Calexico, Grace Smith Elementary in Niland, Calipatria High School and Meadows Elementary School near El Centro.

McCabe students in kindergarten through third grade gathered on the playground, where speakers from the ICOE Student Well-Being & Family Resources spoke about tobacco.

Speakers Mary Brundy and Roseanne Curiel, prevention specialists for ICOE Student Well-Being & Family Resources, warned students about the harmful effects of nicotine. San Diego State University - Imperial Valley campus students Sacha Sykora and Farfan Alvarez also assisted in handing out pencils, mini Frisbees and stickers.

“It’s important students are aware of the effects of tobacco due to the rate of smokers in California and because they are the target of the tobacco industry,” Curiel said. “They need to be aware that it is out in the community and they need to know they have a choice.”

The speakers warned their audience the habit is hard to break and the high chance of smokers being diagnosed with emphysema, a disease that the speakers explained causes difficulty in breathing. The ICOE presenters instructed the children to run in place for a minute, then scream for a minute so they could experience how hard it is for a smoker to breathe.

“It’s really bad for you,” 8nyear-old Jessica Graves, a third-grader at McCabe, said. “It could kill you.”

After exerting some energy, the students each took their turns inspecting detailed pictures on a poster board displaying rotting teeth, hairy tongues and blackened lungs.

“You’re teeth turn yellow when you smoke,” 8-year-old Ricardo Perez a third-grader at McCabe said. “If I smoke my body is going to cry.”

Sixth- through eighth-grade students at St. Mary’s also were affected by the day’s presentation as speakers Nanette Conway, prevention specialist for ICOE Student Well-Being & Family Resources, gave an entertaining performance, along with SDSU - Imperial Valley campus students Anthony Arevalo, Elsa Carrasco and Susana Moreno.

“It is very important kids know about tobacco since there is a lot of peer pressure,” Giselle Rocamora-Macalpin, learning center coordinator for St. Mary’s, said.

Conway spoke to students about the importance of making good choices, especially when it comes to trying substances that can affect their health.

“My main goal is to enforce that they are in charge of choices that can affect their body,” Conway said.

She also provided information about the variety of cancers that nicotine users can experience, such as oral cancers, lung cancer and emphysema. Conway wanted her audience to experience how difficult breathing is for patients with emphysema, so she instructed students to plug their noses while breathing through a coffee stirrer for 30 seconds.

“I felt like someone was choking me and not letting me breathe,” 13-year-old Jose Rocha, an eighth-grader at St. Mary’s said.

Eighth-grader Alfredo Acosta, 13, added: “I felt desperate and scared. I will never smoke.”

After students received facts and participated in breathing through a straw, they were instructed to scream for one minute as they screamed against tobacco.

“The program was great,” Rocamora-Macalpin said. “They really reached the students.”

“I really do think this makes a difference. It can’t hurt to stress this information to little ones,” Raulston said. “It is notoriously known that habits are hard to break, whether it’s biting your nails or twirling your hair. And we want them to not have to have a habit to break.”

Staff writer Ambrosia Sarabia can be reached at 337-3452 or asarabia@ivpressonline.com

Printed courtesy of Imperial Valley Press, El Centro, CA