Up in Smoke

Can a fair maid trust the promises of a fine gentleman?

Apparently not when he sticks to Government regulations. About 30 ninth-graders were watching an antismoking film at Scarborough High School in Houston when HEW Secretary Joseph Califano came whizzing through on a tour of the city's schools. He asked how many of the students smoked. "Be honest," he added. The only one who admitted to smoking was Shawn Galloway, 16, who has been puffing up to three packs a day since the age of ten. Califano told Shawn that if she gave up smoking, she and a friend could have a free trip to Washington and a visit to the White House. Then he whizzed on.

Shawn smoked her last cigarette on the way home from school that day. But when a Houston reporter called HEW to ask about the trip to Washington, it turned out that there were problems. After consulting with the Surgeon General's office, HEW stipulated that Shawn would have to stop smoking for six months before she was really in the clear. And she would need written proof. And there were no Government funds to pay for her trip.

"I was expecting it," Shawn said of HEW. "Most bureaucrats are liars." But Califano did write that he would welcome her to Washington if she can stick by the rules until August. Will she be smoking by then? Said Shawn: "Are you kidding? Nobody will let me."

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