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TUPE: Tobacco Use Prevention Education Program

The purpose of the TUPE program is to reduce youth tobacco use by helping young people grades 6-12 make healthful tobacco-related decisions through tobacco-specific educational instruction and activities that build knowledge as well as social skills and youth development assets.

While the primary focus of the program is tobacco prevention, including e-cigarettes/vape pens, our strategies are comprehensive and include information on alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs. Students are also building a wide variety of important and relevant skills including communication, planning, public speaking, and decision making.

What MDUSD Does - Our Comprehensive Program

MDUSD's TUPE program includes classroom-based substance abuse prevention programs, intervention and cessation services, and youth development activities, such as peer education.

  • Classroom-Based Prevention Programs: Project ALERT (middle school) is a research-validated drug prevention program and proven to reduce the experimental and continued use of drugs. Research has also demonstrated the Project Toward No Drug Abuse (high school) program’s impact on reductions in cigarette smoking, alcohol use, marijuana use, hard drug use, and violence.
  • Intervention Support & Cessation Resources: Brief Intervention is a short-term, one-on-one intervention that consists of 2-3 sessions for young people who use tobacco and/or other drugs. It utilizes motivational interviewing, cognitive behavior therapy, and the stages of change model to meet the needs of adolescents. We also promote cessation in a number of ways – referring current users to voluntary Brief Intervention sessions and providing cessation information and resources, and implementing school-wide “Cessation Campaigns.”
  • Youth Development: Teams of students from every middle school, high school, and non-traditional (continuation/alternative) school are trained as TUPE Peer Educators each year. These students deliver anti-tobacco messages at their school through classroom presentations and school-wide events. In addition, the County Office also co-coordinates a countywide Youth Health Coalition, CourAGE. CourAGE members represent schools/districts from throughout the county.

QUICK FACTS ON YOUTH AND TOBACCO USE

  • Tobacco product use is started and established primarily during adolescence.
    • Each day in the U.S. about 2,000 youth under 18 years of age smoke their first cigarette and more than 300 youth under 18 years of age become daily cigarette smokers.
  • Flavorings in tobacco products can make them more appealing to youth.
    • In 2014, 73% of high school students and 56% of middle school students who used tobacco products in the past 30 days reported using a flavored tobacco product during that time.
  • Recent increases in the use of e-cigarettes is driving increases in tobacco product use among youth.
    • The number of middle and high school students using e-cigarettes rose from 2.1 million in 2017 to 3.6 million in 2018—a difference of about 1.5 million youth.

For more information, please click here to visit the webpage for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Smoking & Tobacco Use.

Classroom-Based Prevention Programs Curriculum

  • High School (9th grade) - Project TND (Toward No Drug Abuse): Research has also demonstrated the Project Towards No Drug Abuse (high school) program's impact on reductions in cigarette smoking, alcohol use, marijuana use, hard drug use, and violence.
  • Middle School (7th and 8th grades) - Project Alert: Project ALERT (middle school) is a research-validated drug prevention program and proven to reduce the experimental and continued use of drugs.

 

FOR PARENTS/FAMILIES

The Contra Costa County Office of Education offers many resources for families about tobacco prevention. 

Upcoming Webinars:

Information on future webinars and to view the previous series please visit the Contra Costa County of Education's website.

 

Tobacco Cessation/Quiting Resources:

The conversation can start at home:

MDUSD TUPE SITE COORDINATORS

Site Coordinators

SCHOOL

NAME

EMAIL

Diablo View Middle

 Cassi Niles nilesc@mdusd.org

El Dorado Middle

Kitzya Aguilar

 aguilark@mdusd.org

Foothill Middle

Kari Freese

 freesek@mdusd.org

Oak Grove Middle 

Angela Ordaz

 ordaza@mdusd.org

Oak Grove Middle

 Omar Alvarez

alvarezo@mdusd.org

Pine Hollow Middle

Daniel Buhler

 buhlerd@mdusd.org

Pleasant Hill Middle

VACANT

  

Riverview Middle (Co)

Lori Nardone

 nardonel@mdusd.org
Riverview Middle (Co)

Kevin Del Mundo

delmundok@mdusd.org
Sequoia Middle  Susan Sutherland  sutherlands@mdusd.org

Valley View Middle (Co) 

Amber Isherwood

 isherwooda@mdusd.org
Valley View Middle (Co) Monica Ravin ravinm@mdusd.org

College Park High

Marcella Barrios

barriosm@mdusd.org

Concord High

Mikayla Bone

bonem@mdusd.org

Crossroads

Donna Lawson

lawsondo@mdusd.org
Glenbrook Academy Gabi Toruno torunog@mdusd.org

Horizons CIS

Rebecca Woo

woor@mdusd.org

Mt. Diablo High

Jane Moseley

moseleyj@mdusd.org

Northgate High

 Khushnuma Driver  

driverk@mdusd.org

Olympic High

Tamara Prosise

prosiset@mdusd.org

Prospect High

Rebecca Woo

woor@mdusd.org

Ygnacio Valley High

Madison Kelleher

kelleherm@mdusd.org

NEWS AND UPDATES

The community is invited to join us for the second in this year’s series – “Vaping and Tobacco Use Prevention” – with Derrick Kirk, a Youth Development Specialist with the Contra Costa County Office of Education’s Tobacco Use Prevention Education (TUPE) program.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Contra Costa County Office of Education - Tobacco Use Prevention Education

CA Department of Education - Tobacco-Use Prevention Education Program Overview

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Youth Tobacco Prevention

DrugFree.Org

Stanford Tobacco Prevention Toolkit

Stanford Marijuana Awareness and Prevention Toolkit

CONTACT

James Wogan
Assistant Director, School and Community 
(925) 682-8000 x4061
woganj@mdusd.org


Linda Faix 
Sr. Secretary
(925) 682-8000 x4025
faixl@mdusd.org