Kids who've quit smoking now
teach others of dangers

Shannon Oliver's older sister taught her to smoke when she was eight. Then, she showed her friends how to light up.

Now that she's smoke-free, she "feels bad" about encouraging her friends to smoke. She said they are still smoking cigarettes.

This month, the 14-year-old eighth grader and some other Hancock Place kids who have kicked the habit start creating lessons about the dangers of smoking. Later this semester, they'll present their information in elementary school classes in the district.

Shannon said, by sixth grade, she was smoking up to 1 1/2 packs of cigarettes a day. Then, she enrolled in the Hancock Place Middle School's anti-smoking class and started cutting back. She finally got smoke-free late last year.

The anti-tobacco program in the Hancock Place district is sponsored by BJC Health Systems. It has two parts. First, there are classes to help students kick the habit.

Second, BJC instructor Andi Boyd helps the smoke-free kids to create lessons for younger kids on the dangers of tobacco.

Eighth grader Erica Pound is another kid who started smoking early. She said her older sister taught her to smoke when she was seven.

At the peak, she was using about a pack a day. "I'd smoke about half of them and give away the other half to friends." She said he used her lunch money to by cigarettes.

But, she said, "When my friends started to quit smoking, I quit also." Another factor in her decision was an anti-tobacco speaker who had lost his voice box to cancer. She said, "That made me sick."

The 14-year-old said it took about five months before she had quit altogether.

One of the high school students in the non-smoking group that's working on anti-tobacco lessons is 16-year-old Rocky Tucker. The junior said he was eight when he started smoking. "My friends smoked and we thought it was cool," he said.

He started to cut back on smoking when he entered Boyd's program. Another thing that helped was his participation in sports. He plays baseball and takes part in kick-boxing.

He said his sports conditioning improved when he quit smoking. "If you smoke, you won't make it through the kick-boxing conditioning," he said.

Junior Erica Ellebracht said her participation in sports also helped her quit. She participates in cross country, softball and basketball.

But, she admitted, "Mostly I quit because I didn't want to die." The 17-year-old admits she's a hypochondriac--a person who's always worrying about her health.

She said her older sister taught her to smoke. Recently, Erica said she helped her sister, who's in college, to kick the habit.

Fourteen-year-old Angie Hasenfratz started smoking at age 10. She said she finally got smoke-free during Thanksgiving weekend last fall.

She said she enjoyed the opportunity to teach younger kids about the dangers of tobacco. She was one who took part in the peer-to-peer teaching a year ago even though she hadn't completely stopped smoking herself.

About the teaching, Angie said, "It was actually fun."

Teacher Boyd said she sometimes uses kids as teachers even if they haven't completely broken the habit. Boyd said, "It helps bring across the fact that quitting smoking is hard."

One of the features of last year's lessons for the younger kids was a skit that helps younger kids learn how to say "no" when their friends urge them to smoke.

Erica Ellebracht said the skit is set in a school bathroom where kids are trying to get a non-smoker to light up. The high school junior said, "When you get up to our level in school, smoking in the bathrooms is really bad."

Rocky Tucker said he thought the younger kids listened to the smoking messages. He said, "I've talked with some of those kids outside of school. Whenever they see me, they always say, 'Hi.'"

Asked if the friends he started smoking with as a young boy were still friends, Rocky said, "Yes." He added, "But, they don't smoke when I'm around."