Faith Leaders for a Healthier Future

Back-to-School: The Call to Protect Young People

September 16, 2025 | By Ritney Castine

As students across the country have returned to school, let us remember: youth tobacco product use—including e-cigarette use—remains a serious threat. According to the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey, an estimated 1.63 million middle and high school students currently use e cigarettes, making them the most-used tobacco product among youth. What’s more, nearly nine out of 10 (87.6%) of these young people use flavored e cigarettes—think bubblegum, mango, and cotton candy—and over one in four use e-cigarettes daily.

This isn't a coincidence. Enticing flavors, slick marketing, and eye-catching packaging are deliberate strategies. Big Tobacco is employing its same old playbook to hook a new generation. As people of faith, we are called to protect the young among us. This back-to-school season, let’s renew our commitment to speak up, stay informed, and boldly stand against youth tobacco use.

Here’s how faith communities can take action this fall:

• Hold a youth forum or a back-to-school night and have an open conversation about vaping, health and peer pressure. Arm parents and students with the facts.
• Teach that the body is sacred, and call out how the tobacco industry is targeting Black, Brown, and other marginalized communities.
• Create and share fact sheets, flyers and graphics for inclusion in bulletins, group chats and youth ministry materials.
• Invite young people to lead. Encourage them to create digital content that resonates with their peers.
• Join our next Faith Roundtable, where we’ll give you tools, messaging and inspiration to encourage your church or ministry to take the next step. As our children return to school, we must equip them with truth and courage to stand strong against Big Tobacco’s harmful influence.

“Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
— Proverbs 22:6