Eighth-grader Jessica Thompson stayed after school Wednesday to kick some butt.

On Kick Butts Day 2002, the Central Junior High School student picked up cigarette remains in Veterans Park, 1840 La., to dramatize the prevalence of teen smoking and the habit many smokers have of tossing burned butts on the ground.

“We only went around one tree,” said Thompson, who was left with black-stained surgical gloves after completing the mission. “We didn’t even pick up half of them.”

Thompson and two friends, Betsy Schleuder and Ashlei Beach, stuffed nearly 1,000 butts in a bag in 90 minutes. They hit Veterans Park because it’s a favorite smoking hangout for Lawrence High School students.

For the seventh-annual Kick Butts Day, sponsored by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, more than 1,500 separate events were planned in 50 states. For example, there were mock funerals for the Marlboro Man, rallies at state capitols and student surveys on tobacco advertising.

Kameron Demby, another Central eighth-grader involved in the project to dump big tobacco’s trash, said he picked up 250 cigarette butts on the sidewalk in front of Massachusetts Street businesses.

“I don’t understand why people smoke,” he said, “and I don’t understand why they throw butts on the ground.”

The group didn’t have to leave Central’s campus to fill plastic grocery sacks with cigarette butt remains.

Teacher Dari Hilbert, who recruited 10 students for the cigarette-butt collection, said she found 900 butts on Central’s property at 14th and Massachusetts streets. Judging by contents of her bag, junior high students prefer Marlboro.

“It’s disgusting,” said Hilbert, who said the 5,000 butts found by the group raised health, environment and economic issues.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, killing more than 400,000 Americans every year. Every day, 5,000 children try their first cigarette.