At the Feb. 18 Rifle City Council meeting, a group of Rifle High School students did something many adults would not have the courage to do. They stood before council during a work session and asked their elected officials to make a change.

The students, members of Rifle High School’s student council, asked council to consider stronger local tobacco retail licensing measures. They said their goal was simple: make it harder for young people to access vaping products.

“Our main goal is just to help the community and kids as a whole,” Rifle senior Jasmin Abarca told the Rifle City Council.

Student council sponsor and Rifle High School Assistant Principal Eric Caro said the students approached him about addressing the issue at the community level. The presentation to council was student-led. They shared data from neighboring communities, gathered perspectives from classmates and described their own experiences with nicotine use among teens.

Students said access, flavored products, peer pressure and social media all contribute to the issue. They emphasized that while schools have taken steps to address vaping on campus, they believe broader community collaboration is important, and they asked Rifle City Council to consider adopting a tobacco retail license ordinance and increasing local restrictions.

“I believe it would be helpful if our town council took the first step in making tobacco products more closely regulated,” Abarca added.

Rifle City Council members were receptive to the conversation, thanked the students for their presentation and asked questions about root causes, enforcement and community education.

The conversation with council is just one way this group of students is trying to draw attention to what they see as a serious vaping issue. They said continued education, conversation and awareness are key to addressing a problem that has quietly and directly affected their lives. In a conversation after the workshop, students explained why they were so passionate.

“I personally vaped in sixth grade, and I feel like it set me back a bit because the mentality that you get when you start vaping is sort of like the world doesn’t care about you and that you should rebel more,” Rihanna Donato said.

She added that she was not alone.

“Nicotine is a big issue, not only with high school teens, but also middle schoolers. When I was in middle school, it felt like half of my class was addicted to nicotine,” Donato said. “I know that this is a problem. It may seem like it only affects a certain group of people, or that it’s not a big deal, but it will surprise you how even the most straight-A student is secretly vaping and destroying their health.”

She said family support played a role in her decision to stop.

“My mom sat me down because she found out, and I got in really big trouble. She told me that I had to be the one to break the cycle, and show my younger siblings that they could achieve bigger things in life, so I think that’s what made me stop.”

Caro said that, in addition to the preventive and educational measures Rifle High School already has in place to discourage vaping, the students wanted to explore additional steps beyond school grounds.

“I think as a school we have the things that we have to prevent them [from vaping],” Caro told council members. “The thing is, it’s easy to get. If we can keep it from getting into their hands we can keep them safer.”

Students said their goal in coming to council was not to criticize, but to share their perspective. They added that they wish they could have more conversations with trusted adults about issues that directly affect their lives.

“I think it needs to be talked about more,” Ella Olson said. “I think that that’s one of the things that isn’t talked about around community elders and even our parents. As young adults, we feel like we will automatically get punished or in trouble for it, but this is life-threatening, it’s different from sneaking out. I think that kids, parents, and the community need to talk about it, learn more about the side effects, and what can happen to you. It’s almost like they don’t want to know.”

For the students who stood at the front of the room that evening, the goal was not simply policy change, but participation. They researched the issue, gathered perspectives from their peers and stepped into a public forum to be heard.

Whether or not an ordinance moves forward, the message from Rifle’s students was clear: They want to be part of the conversation about issues that affect them. And on Feb. 18, they made sure their community heard their voices.