The Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Board of Directors on Thursday approved the hiring of a consultant to assist with conducting an assessment of school-based health education in Oklahoma.
Following discussions of the need for a more youth-oriented movement, Chairwoman Casey Killblane expressed concern for the lack of health education in classrooms, saying the discussions often get tied up by “a lot of emotional garbage.”
“[Discussions about health education] get so convoluted because everyone is so worried about everything else….the only things you need [in health education] is nutrition and fitness, I mean that is it,” Killblane said.
“Everyone can rally around that if you don’t allow all the other emotional garbage to get in the way.” When the issue of bullying was brought up, Killblane said that she understands that’s a significant issue and it deserves to be addressed; however, to her, health education in schools is more pertinent.
“Bullying is a horrible thing, I get that, but let’s find some common ground here,” she said. “We have a health epidemic because people are unhealthy and bullying is bad but you are not going to get diabetes from it.”
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