Lakeview High School’s STAND program kicked off once again this February to teach kids the dangers of tobacco and nicotine. For those that do not know, STAND means stop tobacco and nicotine dependency. Every Wednesday for a month a large group of Lakeview High School students would go to Lakeview Middle School and teach the fifth graders all the dangers that come along with smoking.

Lakeview Senior Haylee Huffman and myself, Lakeview Senior Breanna Hipkins, taught a class of intelligent fifth graders. Huffman says “I never thought fifth graders would know so much about the effects from nicotine and tobacco.”

Teaching fifth graders can be a difficult time because they lose focus easily, so many of the projects were engaging and kept them involved. One week the teachers used jeopardy in order to make sure the kids were having fun, but also make sure that they were also learning the important information. Other times, Lakeview Middle School’s Nurse would get cups or stickers and if the students listened and engaged they would be able to receive them after the lesson.

Since vaping has hit many high schools around this area hard in the last year, the point we wanted to drive to the students is that nicotine is addictive. It only takes one pod on a Juul to get addicted, which in turn can destroy your life in the long run.