School Safety Topics at Lind-Ritzville High School
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How You Can Make Our School a Better Place for You and Others
This series of videos our designed for our staff and students as a training tool for our student on the first day of school.
Opening Video: Glad You're Here
Video 1: The Why
Video 2: Where is Everything?
Video 3: Let's Talk about Lunch
Video 4: Single Point of Entry
Video 5: But I'm Hungry
Video 6: Chromebook Love, Cell Phone Heartbreak
Video 7: Make Like a Tree...
Download our Student Handbook here
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TEENAGE YEARS CAN BE DIFFICULT
by Greg WhitmoreTeenage years can be very difficult. Lots of challenges in the years when our kids are too old to be a child but too young to be an adult. Over the course of my 28 years of teaching Health Education and raising 3 of my own "little challenges," I have seen different health issues change positions and move to the forefront. These include issues such as:- teen pregnancy
- teen suicide
- alcohol abuse/binge drinking
- tobacco use,
- drug abuse
- stress
- bullying
- texting and driving
- and many, many more
If you were to ask my opinion as to the leading concerns I have facing our kiddos right now, I would have to say:- e-cigarettes/vaping
- high sugar consumption leading to obesity and diseases such as fatty liver, pre-diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes
- cell phones/social media and its effects on our teens brains
I will start with E-Cigs/Vaping. As I said, I have been teaching health for 28 years so I can tell you a ton about cigarettes, drug/alcohol, teen suicide, stress and nutrition. However, e-cigarettes and vaping is new to me. I am only coming to know about this very dangerous trend. E-cigs and vaping has hit Lind-Ritzville HS and MS like a locomotive this year. We are seeing it in our bathrooms, parking lots, on school buses, cars, etc. I had a Juul turned into me that was lying on the window sill outside Gilson gym. We have even seen instances of e-cig use in our grade school. I thought it migh be helpful to pass on some information to parents as I figure that if the HS health teacher doesn't know much about them, there probably are many parents without the information as well. Below are a few places for you to lean more about e-cigarettes/vaping.- Still Blowing Smoke by the California Department of Health
- Electronic Cigarettes and Vaping YouTube video by UCLA
- E-Cigs/Vaping and Pod-based by Stanford Medicine (This is a curriculum that I use in my class so it is a little more detailed)
JUUL is the largest e-cigarette manufacturer. Did you know they paid each of their 1,500 employees an average of a $1.3 million bonus this past year? Read about it here.Don't get me wrong, e-cigarettes no doubt have their place in helping longtime smokers break their addiction just as nicotine gum and patches do. However, they have no place in our kids hands. Don't be fooled by Big Tobacco's rhetoric. They will say they are not targeting our kids, but it is very profitable if they can get our young people (with brains that are already much more susceptible to addiction than adults), to try their product and become a lifetime consumer.If you would like more information on the crisis we are facing, please feel free to email me. Oh yeah and talk to your son/daughter about the subject. In some case, they may know more than us adults.Greg WhitmoreHealth EducationLind-Ritzville High School