Students, administrators, parents and Health and Police Department officials met for the first time on Oct. 9 as the Tobacco Policy Group to consider changing the school’s long-standing policy of permitting students to smoke on Greenough Street. The main idea put forward was the possible implementation of a ban similar to those in place at other schools. There have been no formal meetings since the initial discussion, but the next step will be to collect input from the school’s residential neighbors.
According to the Newton North High School student handbook, the first time a student is caught smoking within 300 yards of the school, he or she is given a warning. On the second offense, he or she is fined $50. The third offense results in a $100 fine, and all further offenses result in a $200 fine.
According to its handbook, Wayland High School fines students $100 each time they are caught smoking.
The idea of a ban enforced with a fine was met with widespread approval at the meeting.
Outside of the meeting, peer leader David Ganjei said that smoking does not belong in school.
“It’s a place of education,” he said. “You want to be as clear-minded as possible.”
Ganjei said that smoking on Greenough Street is problematic because it is already causing students to be late to class.
He said that students who smoke are judged by peers like himself, but that stigma is not enough to stop students from smoking.
Furthermore, Ganjei said that if a ban causes students to miss even more class, their slipping grades would serve as a wake-up call, causing them to eventually quit.
According to Ganjei, while the school is responsible for ending smoking, the administration is skirting the issue because it is reluctant to use its power.
“I feel like they’re not combatting a fight that they should be,” Ganjei said. “They don’t want a confrontation. They don’t want to deal with it.”
No smokers were present at the meeting.
Senior Amanda Barros, a smoker, said that she thinks a couple of smokers should be at meetings about the smoking policy.
“It’s about them, so they should definitely be there,” she said.
Barros said that a smoking ban would be absurd. She said she goes out to smoke eight times a day because she gets agitated if she does not.
“I’m just not a student when I don’t have a cigarette,” she said.
According to Barros, students who smoke would skip class to get past the 300-yard radius and start failing their courses. She said that some students may ignore the ban altogether.
“I know I would just come right out here and smoke my cigarette,” she said.
Barros said she had worked with her doctor over the summer to quit, using both gum and electronic cigarettes, but did not succeed.
“It’s hard,” she said. “It’s really hard.”
Barros said that while the knowledge that she would be surrounded by students smoking once the school year started made quitting particularly difficult, it still is not the school’s job to ban smoking.
Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention Coordinator Mary Minott said that it is irresponsible for the school to allow students to smoke.
“To say that you’re 15 years old and we have to allow time for you to have smoke breaks is just enabling people to become further addicted to tobacco,” Minott said. “Give them notice in June that by September they better be able to go six hours without a cigarette if they’re addicted to cigarettes.”
Minott said that the best way for students to try to quit is to go to their pediatrician. According to Minott, doctors can help start patients on a comprehensive cessation program that includes medication, gum, patches and acupuncture. However, she acknowledged that the transition to a new policy would be hard.
Peer leader Andres Marin, who was also at the meeting, said that at least in the beginning, enforcing a ban on smoking would be tough.
“The smokers are some of the nicest kids in the school. How are we going to tell such a nice group of kids just to leave 300 yards away?” he said. “It’s a very difficult situation.”
Ultimately, though, Marin said smoking is not appropriate at the school because it is so detrimental to one’s health. He said that cancer is a particularly sad outcome of smoking.
“It’s just something that you wouldn’t want to see one of your friends at school have,” Marin said.
According to Marin, the ban would have to be implemented over time.
Just as the student body came to accept the decrease in number of places to smoke around in the past, he said, people would eventually adapt to a new ban. The short-term challenge of accommodating smokers, however, is not trivial, he said.
“It’s a sad thing,” Marin said, “but it’s a thing that we have to face.”
