Teens Against Tobacco Use (TATU) members and sponsors from three Fort Bend ISD middle schools (Garcia, Missouri City and Sugar Land) attended the 2012 Say What! Texas Tobacco-Free Conference, held July 22-25 at the Woodlands Resort and Conference Center. Hosted by the Texas School Safety Center, this year’s conference was the first in Texas to offer 100 percent youth-focused tobacco prevention and control topics, training and tools to promote tobacco-free communities.
The FBISD student participants received full scholarships from Tobacco Free Fort Bend and The Texas School Safety Center to attend the conference based on their work with tobacco prevention in their schools and communities. During the conference, they took part in various seminars on such topics as Social Media and Networking, Policy Advocacy, Youth and Adult Partnerships, and Model Programs. The students will use the information they received to promote TATU activities on their campuses. The students also heard remarks from keynote speaker, Dr. Victor J. DeNoble, who spoke about his experience in the tobacco industry and the science of drug addiction.