Imagine going to the movies or flipping on the TV and not seeing
actors puff on cigarettes as they deal with life, love and other
drama on the big-screen. That’s the kind of world 13-year-old
Ashley Coates envisions and what she wrote about in the winning
essay for the
”
I Also Have a Dream
”
essay contest, sponsored by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, a
textbook publishing company.
Hollister – Imagine going to the movies or flipping on the TV and not seeing actors puff on cigarettes as they deal with life, love and other drama on the big-screen. That’s the kind of world 13-year-old Ashley Coates envisions and what she wrote about in the winning essay for the “I Also Have a Dream” essay contest, sponsored by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, a textbook publishing company.
Her essay, about a world where no kids would be exposed to smoking in the movies, was selected from over 350 entries across the state and honored at a special ceremony March 5 in Burlingame. Coates, a seventh grader at Rancho San Justo Middle School, was awarded $1,500 and a certificate by Martin Luther King Jr.’s sister, Dr. Christine King Farris.
“I was trying to come up with something creative,” said Coates, who wrote the essay as an extra credit project for her English class. “I have several aunts and uncle who smoke and I’ve seen what it does to their kids.”
In her essay, Coates wrote about how hard it is for kids and teenagers to abstain from smoking when everywhere they look is the message that smoking is something done by glamorous and famous people. And even though they are taught otherwise at school, the influence of mass media is hard to resist, she wrote.
“Our teachers and parents are trying to keep us away from smoking and the TV is contradicting what they are telling us,” she wrote. And she said she would get involved to stop the dangerous trend, starting a petition to ban smoking from all movies and TV programs watched by kids and sending it to directors and producers.
“I think they should be told by young people from all over how they are damaging our lives,” she wrote.
Coates credited her teacher, Alexander Michael, with encouraging her and other students to write, and gently doling out suggestions and advice to keep his young pupils interested in the craft.
Coates, who is also in the Rancho-Maze School band, plans on donating a small portion of the award to a local charity and going shopping with friends. The rest, she says, will go to her college fund.
The award was also given to two sixth and eighth graders and another seventh grader in the state, who in addition to the money, received copies of King Farris’ book on the life of Martin Luther King Jr. titled “My Brother Martin.”
The contest was held to correspond with Black History Month, which is held every February.
Karina Ioffee covers education and agriculture for the Free Lance. Reach her at (831)637-5566 ext. 335 or [email protected]
