A state survey shows a third of high school students use cigarettes. That's because some law officers wrote the tickets in a way that requires no court appearance. Polk County Associate Judge Douglas Staskal suggests that officers mark such tickets as simple misdemeanors.
Judges then have the option of sending the teens to class.
The move to increase education for youth smokers comes as a survey shows one-third of Iowa high school students smoke cigarettes. The Iowa Department of Public Health study showed that 12 percent of Iowa middle-school students smoke. Some teens say the classes will do little. More than a dozen students were puffing away this week in the parking lot across from Lincoln High School in Des Moines. Sometimes in math class I get a little nervous and jittery.