Countywide : Tax Aiding Schools’ Anti-Smoking Event

Revenue from a cigarette tax imposed two years ago is helping to pay for an anti-smoking workshop for parents, teachers in the county’s 20 school districts and other community workers who counsel school-age children.

The workshop, sponsored by the Tobacco School-Community Cooperative, is intended to help teachers, school nurses, coaches and others prevent schoolchildren from smoking.

Part of the money comes from a 25-cent tax on cigarettes passed by California voters in November, 1988, as part of Proposition 99. The tax, which took effect Jan. 1, 1989, is expected to generate $1.46 billion by mid-1991 for schools, counties and public health agencies.

Ventura County schools will receive about $690,000 from the tax for the 1990-91 school year or more than $5 for each kindergarten through 12th-grade student, said Kathy Miller, a consultant with the Ventura County superintendent of schools office, which is coordinating the Jan. 8 workshop.

Representatives of the American Cancer Society, American Heart Assn. and American Lung Assn. will present information on the consequences of smoking.

A panel of teen-agers, including former smokers, will also address the group, and a keynote speech will be given by pediatrician Stuart Berlin. The workshop costs $20 per person.