By Hannah Lowenstein
A new smoking law was passed by the town of Brookline, stating that students and faculty are not allowed to smoke within a 400-foot radius of school buildings. The law, which was supported by students in the high school’s legislature, was passed at the start of the school year.
According to Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention Program Coordinator Mary Minott, students involved with changing the smoking policy had to attend multiple public health meetings, visit the Board of Selectmen to get their approval and ultimately go to Town Meeting. Town Meeting’s approximately 270 members passed the law nearly unanimously.
Minott said the faculty support has been amazing.
“They feel like it’s their mission to be helpful and educate kids, and this kind of underlines that,” Minott said.
However, students have reported mixed views on the new smoking policy.
Senior and smoker Andy Oh said that many smokers find the law confusing and ineffective, especially for the purposes of encouraging students to quit smoking.
Hannah Lowenstein can be contacted at [email protected]
“Obviously it’s not working, because people are still smoking,” Oh said. “The idea of cessation is healthy. However, many of us smokers have already taken that into consideration. In full honesty, most of us don’t care.”
Senior and smoker Charlie Dicero-Dikter, on the other hand, said he liked the policy, just not necessarily for the reasons it was implemented.
“There’s no such thing as that toxic place known as the smoker benches anymore,” Dicero-Dikter said. “Now we have to be spread out. Since we’re not all in one place at one time, I think it really reduces the stress of being a smoker in high school. You’re not a smoker bench kid anymore, you’re just a kid who smokes.”
Junior Hannah Sussman, a non-smoker, liked the policy for different reasons.
“I think that it’s a good idea to have a place for people to smoke so they don’t do it [near] the school,” Sussman said. “I have asthma, and for students with asthma or respiratory issues, the smoke would often float over, which is actually a big problem. And sometimes people would start smoking before they were really out of the school, like coming out of the UA building. I’ve definitely noticed a difference now.”
Since the policy is still new, Minott said that they will not know for sure if it will actually lead to a decrease in student smoking until the spring, when the student health survey comes out. But she also said that hope of cessation was not the only reason the law was passed.
Minott said there were small children walking outside through cigarette smoke, and since it is known to have health hazards, they should not be exposed to it.
“What kind of role model is that for little kids to see high school students smoking? It also almost made it too easy for kids to start smoking,” Minott said. “We really wanted to cut down on the number of kids who started smoking because they were at a high school where you were allowed to smoke; how many other schools do you know where you’re allowed to smoke?”
Yet senior Sofia Spyropoulos said there’s still confusion as to where the buffer zone extends and how it is being enforced.
“I could go over to the playground, but I’d feel even worse because there are little children over there,” Spyropoulos said. “At my other school in Greece we had our own place to smoke. It’s so random to just say 400 feet away from the school. Just give us some place to go, and don’t be so vague.”
The policy isn’t officially being enforced yet, and Spyropoulos said the most that has happened is a teacher coming by to ask the students to move outside of the 400-foot radius.
According to Minott, this is because the policy is in its public education stage, ensuring that parents and teachers can be informed of how it will work. As of now, students receive a warning and are asked to move outside of the buffer zone.
Dean of Students Anthony Meyer said that administrators are currently in charge of enforcing and clarifying the policy.
However, Minott said this is not going to last, and that repeated transgressions will get the student referred to the substance abuse office at the high school.
Minott said that the design of the policy and its enforcement are not meant as a punishment, but rather to make it easier for students to get help, since smoking is a health issue. Students who repeatedly transgress the policy will be asked to come in with their parents to meet with Ms. Minott and other counselors, while pediatricians can also be contacted as a source for cessation aids.
“It’s meant to be like everything in Brookline: educational, helpful and whatever we can do to support kids,” Minott said.
According to Minott, signs will soon be going up around school property to make it more clear about where students aren’t allowed to smoke. Also, she believes the law is critical in preparing students for their futures, when smoking might be more of an inconvenience, as many colleges have non-smoking campuses and many jobs do not allow employees to smoke during work hours.
“Students can come to us voluntarily if they feel like they’re struggling with going for six hours without smoking during the school day, and we can talk about different strategies,” Minott said. “But you can’t really help somebody quit smoking unless they’re motivated themselves.”
Dicero-Dikter said that he would be more in favor of the new smoking policy if students who actually smoked had been included in a discussion before it was passed.
“Nobody ever came up to any of us and asked what we thought or told any of us what was going on,” Dicero-Dikter said. “We didn’t even know about this until it was already passed. We never actually disrespected anyone, and the high school generally respects other people’s decisions.”
Hannah Lowenstein can be contacted at [email protected]
