The Stanislaus County Office of Education Prevention Programs Department, in partnership with the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency, California Youth Advocacy Network (CYAN), and Follow the Signs, will host the Ninth Annual PHAST Tobacco Slam training on Tuesday Oct. 1, 8:30a.m. – 2p.m. at the Martin Petersen Event Center, 720 12th St., Modesto.

The keynote speaker this year will be La Tanisha C. Wright, a former Big Tobacco marketing manager, who will expose the tobacco industry’s predatory marketing practices. Follow the Signs is a training program that raises awareness about Big Tobacco marketing tactics aimed at increasing tobacco sales, tobacco use, menthol use, youth access to tobacco and nicotine addiction in underserved, low socioeconomic status and African American communities.

The training program was developed by Wright, who once worked for Brown & Williamson Tobacco, now RJ Reynolds. Follow the Signs is a unique, intense program that assists in the understanding of tobacco industry retail contracts and marketing techniques. It includes information that the tobacco industry has not made available to the public. Wright addresses the impact of Big Tobacco on the placement, presence, price and promotion of tobacco products in various communities.

More than 280 students from 21 high schools in Stanislaus County, including Oakdale High School, will learn about the emerging trends in tobacco use such as e-cigarettes, how to create public service announcements, fighting fiction with facts on smoke-free parks ordinances, a spokesperson training, and an in-depth session on how the tobacco industry targets women, girls and teenagers.

Other participating high schools include Ceres, Central Valley, Argus, Hughson, Patterson, Del Puerto, Roselawn, Turlock, Pitman, Orestimba, Beyer, Downey, Enochs, Johansen, Modesto, Elliot, Gregori, Davis, Denair, and Waterford.

For more information, contact Charmaine Monte at (209) 238-1368 or cmonte@stancoe.org.