October 9, 2014

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

National School Boards Association joins racketeer RJR to "educate" kids about smoking; they should drop out

RJ Reynolds just announced that it was "partnering" with the National School Boards Association to promote RJR's new "Right Decisions Right Now" youth smoking prevention program.  RJR's press release proudly announces that its curriculum is "aligned with the Common Core Standards."
 
The Common Core is supposed to promote critical thinking skills and in-depth examination of issues.  One wonders if the NSBA reviewed federal Judge Gladys Kessler's landmark ruling that RJ Reynolds violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) by forming an illegal enterprise to defraud the public that is continuing.
 
Most relevant to this deal, Judge Kessler found that the companies used exactly the kind of "youth smoking prevention as an element of  the rackettering enterprise.  In particular, she spends 9 pages in her ruling (pages 1164-1173) reciting the evidence that "Defendants' Youth Smoking Prevention Programs Are Not Designed to Effectively Prevent Smoking." 
 
Even a cursory review of RJR's "Right Decisions Right Now" shows that, like the programs Judge Kessler describes, the effort is to displace responsibility for youth smoking on to the youth themselves and their families and deflect attention away from  the cigarette (and now e-cigarette companies) and prevent real anti-tobacco education from being used in schools.
 
This strategy is in full bloom in  the "Parent/Guardian Information Sheet" RJR provides.  Among other things it says:
 

What Prompts Adolescents to Experiment with or Regularly Use Tobacco?

In middle school, adolescents experience a lot of changes and challenges. Friends become an ever-increasing and powerful influence, and, as a result, adolescents might face peer pressure to try new things. Or, they may put pressure on themselves to engage in risk behaviors like experimenting with tobacco or alcohol because they think such behaviors will help them “fit in.” Some common factors that may influence young people to use tobacco include:
 

  • having friends, peers, or parents who use tobacco
  • overestimating the number of people who smoke
  • linking smoking with a “positive” social image and bonding with a peer group
  • perceiving tobacco use as a transition to adulthood
  • underestimating the health consequences oftobacco use
  • not fully understanding that nicotine in tobacco is as addictive as heroin, cocaine, or alcohol
  • having low levels of academic achievement
  • having low self-esteem or low self-image
  • lacking skills to resist influences to use tobacco

 
RJR makes no mention of the tobacco industry's role in recruiting kids to smoke or promotional activities like smoking in the movies
 
If the NSBA wanted even more depth in thinking about these issues, it could read some of the academic research on industry youth smoking preventiion programs: 

 
 
It is time for the National School Boards Association to break this deal with RJR (regardless of how much money they are getting as part of the "partnership") and start advoacting for students and their families. 
 
 
More important, school boards that understand that you cannot "partner" with Big Tobacco need to publicly call on NSBA to break this deal with racketeer RJR and look for a legidimate partner who actually wants to reduce youth smoking and e-cigarette use, like supporting the Legacy Foundation's FinishIt campaign.
 
 
PS:  As an Eagle Scout, I was also dismayed to see the Boy Scouts of America as another RJR partner.  BSA needs remember that the first Scout Law is trustworthyThat term hardly applies to a tobacco company.  BSA should also pull out.

Comments

Comment: 

Stan, I'm nearly always on board with your posts, but this one stands out to be among your best, shining light into another dark TI corner that folk might have otherwise missed.  Just as you've written, both NSBA and BSA ought to know better, and why do they not?  The next questions we need to ask them aim to disclose the $$$ that are leading them down the path they are choosing.   How much, into whose pockets, and for what purposes?  I hope these 501(3) organizations will provide the public with the same degree of transparency in this regard as they are doing with their promotional support for RJR.
Aloha,
Mark Levin
Wm. S. Richardson School of Law
The University of Hawai'i at Manoa
(affiliation listed for identification purposes only)
 

Comment: 

It is useful to compare the 2014 with the 1984 "Helping Youth Decide" program the they partnered with the Tobacco Institue to promote.  You can review the 1984 program /sites/g/files/tkssra4661/f/u9/1984%20Nat%20Assoc%20State%20Brds%20Education.pdf" target="_blank";here.
 
Note that the 1984 program had the Tobacco Institute partnering with the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE), which is different from RJR's 2014 partner, the National School Board Association (NSBA). 
 
These two organizations are confused so prefently that NSBA's website has a question on their FAQ website asking what the difference between NSBA and NASBE is:  http://www.nsba.org/about-us/frequently-asked-questions" target="_blank";http://www.nsba.org/about-us/frequently-asked-questions

Comment: 

I visited the NSBA website (http://www.nsba.org" title="www.nsba.org";www.nsba.org) over the weekend and the RD, RN logo was at the bottom of their home page.  It's not there today.
Anyone know what's happened?
 

Comment: 

They also removed their press release and any mention of RJR being a corporate sponsor.

Comment: 

Just for the record, the Internet Archive last trolled the page on 2014/9/21, RDRN was still up:  http://web.archive.org/web/20140921145101/https:/nsba.org/" title="http://web.archive.org/web/20140921145101/https://nsba.org/";http://web....

Comment: 

/sites/g/files/tkssra4661/f/u9/NSBA_stmt_rdrn_10_14_14%20%282%29.pdf" target="_blank";Here is their press release:
 
After careful deliberation, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) has decided to terminate its partnership with R.J. Reynolds’ “Right Decisions, Right Now”  program. This action is effective immediately.
Our advocacy around child well-being is unequivocal, clear and on the record: NSBA strongly supports tobacco-free public schools.
 
Our strong advocacy to ensure that America’s public schools are “free of … alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs” (NSBA Beliefs & Policies, Article IV, Section 2) reflects our focus on safe and supportive teaching and learning environments. In our decision making and partnerships, NSBA, representing more than 90,000 school board members across our nation working across 13,600 school districts, is singularly committed to actions in the best interest of America’s public schoolchildren.
 
The association’s aggressive advocacy push around tobacco use prevention and smoking cessation will continue, unabated, until the NSBA goal to make every public school across America a tobaccofree zone is fully accomplished. We look forward to partnering with America’s leading public health advocates to move this effort forward.

Comment: 

As I noted in my original post on NSBA, RJR is bragging about their continuing partnership with the Boy Scouts of America. 
 
As an Eagle Scout, I find having the Scouts working with convicted racketeers as part of an ongoing fraud, to say nothing about the fact that RJR's interest is antithetical to good health, completely inconsistent with what the Scouts claim to stand for.
 
All the people and organizations that eduacted NSBA should now turn their attention to BSA.

Comment: 

RJRT may brag about the association, but tobacco use prevention and drug use in general are conspicuously absent from this sub-section on the BSA Brand page. As a line from Psycho has it, money doesn’t necessarily buy happiness, it just “buys off unhappiness.”
 
Stan Shatenstein
 
YOUTH HEALTH AND WELLNESS
 
Scouts learn to challenge themselves both physically and mentally while also keeping an eye out for each other. Our programs, activities and curriculum address sensitive issues like childhood obesity, mental health, bullying and teen suicide in ways that engage kids and gives them the skills and support systems needed for a happy and healthy life.
http://www.scoutingworks.com/bsa-brand/" title="http://www.scoutingworks.com/bsa-brand/";http://www.scoutingworks.com/bs... HEALTH 
 

Comment: 

I was only a Life Scout, but I have spent about 30 years in scouting between  my kids and myself. They would not enforce the alleged policy that adults were not supposed to smoke around the scouts.
I guess the Boy Scouts have forgotten their part in the conspiracy when they had the Camel Adventure Team in an edition of Boys Life. Pretty amazing.

Comment: 

Do we know how the annual contribution BSA receives from RJR?

Comment: 

Why don't you ask them and post what they say?

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