School administrators who received the committee's proposal said they have yet to review its details. Jan Schneider, Vanguard's director, said she is sympathetic to the group's goals but thinks patches would be a tough sell to her superiors because of liability concerns. Goyal likens this project to carrying a shield to a soldier on a battlefield. Lives are at stake, he said. If the district agrees to the program, Goyal said, the school will determine how the patches will be distributed and whether parents will be notified.
Some teens already know how tough it can be to quit.
It's not going to be easy, but I don't feel like I'm addicted yet. Nationwide, only a handful of schools distribute patches. For about three years, the Multnomah County Health Department in Oregon has provided patches and gum to a handful of students in its school-based health clinics. Although several counties have inquired about Multnomah's teen-smoking program, Multnomah officials don't know of another that has adopted nicotine replacement. Experts agree that teens using the patch will need special monitoring.