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Show Wed/Thurs/Fri, March 22-24, 2017 The Park Record A-12 Preschool draws attention Program impresses teachers visiting from Pennsylvania By Bubba Brown The Park Record BUBBA BROWN/Park Record Bailee Tychsen, left, and Gracie Averett, students at South Summit High School, hang shirts with antitobacco messages written on them as part of Kick Butts Day, an event on March 15 aimed at educating students about the dangers of tobacco and e-cigarettes. Big Tobacco gets butts kicked Event educates students about the dangers of smoking By Bubba Brown The Park Record Cigarettes -- electronic or otherwise -- have no place in the halls of South Summit High School. That was the message the Summit County Health Department sent to students March 15 as part of the national Kick Butts Day, an effort aimed at educating teenagers against the dangers of tobacco and electronic cigarettes. At South Summit, students “aired out tobacco’s dirty laundry” by hanging t-shirts and posters emblazoned with anti-tobacco messages on a clothesline in the school’s main foyer. Tiffany Anderson, health educator for the Summit County Health Department, said it’s critical to meet students faceto-face and arm them with the information they’ll need to protect themselves as Big Tobacco and e-cigarette companies target them. “It’s important to get into the schools because the tobacco industry has said that they want to target their replacement users because they know they have a product that kills,” she said. “Their long-term users die. To get a person before they turn 21 is a key time when a person is most likely to start smoking. So the 14- to 21-yearold is that key customer. It’s crucial that we empower and educate our youth before they even consider starting.” Anderson said Utah is fortunate to have one of the lowest tobacco usage rates in the country. However, usage of e-cigarettes among teens has skyrocketed in recent years. The combination of sweet, candy-like flavors available in e-cigarettes and marketing that portrays vaping as a cool and safe alternative to traditional cigarettes has fooled teens into thinking they are harmless. That’s far from true, however, Anderson said. In addition to the fact e-cigarette juice often contains harmful substances, tobacco companies are banking on eventually turning e-cigarette users into traditional smokers. “Big Tobacco has stated that a vape user today is a cigarette user tomorrow,” she said. “So it’s key for us to get with (teenagers). It’s really important. … People don’t think e-cigarettes are dangerous, but they really are. They’re just as dangerous as any other cigarette.” Bailee Tychsen, a student in South Summit High School’s peer leader organization that helped put on the event, said the dangers of tobacco aren’t often present within the school’s halls. Nonetheless, talking about them is important. “In our school, tobacco use isn’t really a big thing unless Please see South Summit, A-13 Six years after being implemented at all four of the Park City School District’s elementary schools, the district’s preschool program is thriving. The program has been so successful, in fact, that it’s drawn the attention of educators more than 2,000 miles away. Recently, a handful of faculty members from The Philadelphia School, a private school in Pennsylvania, visited Park City to observe the program and collaborate with local teachers. The district’s preschool director Kathy Anderson said a longtime official at The Philadelphia School, Sandra Dean, lives in Park City part time and has been assessing the preschool program since its inception. Dean’s desire to have Philadelphia School teachers learn firsthand what makes the district’s program so effective speaks highly of Park City’s efforts, Anderson said. She said it proved to be an enlightening experience for the educators, who were eager to share their findings with their colleagues in Pennsylvania. “They felt it was a real shot in the arm for them to go back and share with their staff and parents how they want to revamp their program based on what they saw in Park City,” Anderson said, adding that she would like to one day send Park City teachers to The Philadelphia School for similar collaboration. The collaboration was also encouraging for Park City’s teachers, who were pleased to show off their program. Debbie Freeman, who teaches full-day preschool at McPolin Elementary School, said it was nice to get warm feedback from The Philadelphia School educators. “It’s always great to have people come in and say, ‘Wow, what a great job you guys are doing,’ because we don’t hear that often enough,” she said. “It’s just kind of a nice boost to take us through the end of the school year like, ‘What we’re doing is very valu- able and we’re good at it.’” Amy Bean, a preschool teacher at Parley’s Park Elementary School, echoed that sentiment and added that it was pleasing to see that The Philadelphia School teachers were receptive to fresh ideas. “I was really appreciative of that because one of them had been teaching for 30 years,” she said. “They’re very well educated and they’ve seen a lot, and they were very open to new ideas of how we run our program.” But The Philadelphia School teachers weren’t the only ones who learned from the visit. Jen Bramson, another teacher at McPolin, said it was interesting to hear the perspective of educators who work in a different environment. Both sides were able to share unique insights and learn from one another. “It was very interesting,” she said. “They have a very different school because it’s a private school. But it was really neat to see their creativity versus our more structured program, and were able to share a lot of ideas Please see Preschool, A-13 Bubba Brown/Park Record (From left) Jen Bramson, Debbie Freeman and Amy Bean are teachers in the Park City School District’s preschool program. They say a recent visit by educators from The Philadelphia School in Pennsylvania who were interested in observing the preschool program was enlightening. Helping Utah Home Since 1977 VISIT US TODAY 2,633 – 5,001 Sq. 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