IN BRIEF

Her voice was quiet. But even the most boisterous students in the Locke High School auditorium fell silent to hear Pauline Owens. “You are about to learn an important lesson,” she began.

It was a 25th anniversary commemoration of the Great American Smokeout, sponsored by the American Cancer Society. Owens, whose larynx was removed due to complications of her smoking habit, was speaking with the aid of a little machine known as a voice box.

It took her three years to learn to use it properly, she told the students Thursday, and she has a little hole in the back of her neck, which means she can’t swim or even easily take a shower.

Owens is a member of the Lost Chords Club, a group of people suffering from smoking-related illnesses who travel around Southern California speaking to such audiences.

She never said, “Don’t smoke.” Instead, she made the point that sometimes “water does get in the back of my neck, and has to be drained, and that is painful.”

The 50 or so students who helped stage the event wore T-shirts inscribed “Teens Kick Ash,” the theme of the day, and members of the school’s soccer team kicked around bags of what could be taken as ash.

Due to lack of room in the Watts area high school’s auditorium, only about 300 students attended, less than one-eighth of the student body.

Students in the audience seemed impressed. There wasn’t much talk, and afterward, they filed out quietly.

“The future belongs to us,” drama teacher Betty Poydras said at the end. “So say no to smoking. You have to make the decision for yourself.”

Statistics compiled by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that more than 70% of American high school students have tried cigarette smoking and that more than 70% of daily teen smokers who think they won’t be smoking in five years are still smoking seven years later.