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Posted on 10/03/2002 1:15:10 PM PDT by The Other Harry

Schools crack down on legal smokers

By KATE ANDREWS / Daily Progress staff writer
Oct 2, 2002

The scent of cigarette smoke used to be a constant in teachers' lounges, and students often could be found puffing away in school courtyards. But no longer.

School systems are cracking down on smokers over the legal age of 18 - even those who would partake when there are no students around.

Because all of Albemarle County's school buildings - including the bus garage and building services office - have been officially "tobacco-free zones" for the last two years, that means no smoking, no chewing and no dipping.

"Do we have people who ignore it, and/or forget? Sure," said Al Reaser, director of building services. "But we keep on reminding."

Few teachers use tobacco any more, said Virginia Education Association representative John Baldino, a former smoker himself. The old cliche of the smoke-filled teachers' lounge is no longer true, he added.

Albemarle High School Principal Larry Lawwill said he has "two or three hardcore smokers" on his staff, who often "run an errand" during their planning periods or at lunch. The ban is extended to sporting events and other extracurricular activities, he added.

Across from AHS, a few bus drivers sometimes pull into the parking lot of a non-school building to smoke.

But adults who are not school employees, yet find themselves on school grounds for hours at a time, present a special challenge.

Construction crews, who take over many campuses in the summer, are one of the school system's biggest tests in tobacco enforcement.

Project managers, who work for the county, remind independent contractors to tell their workers not to smoke, and many principals keep their eyes open as well.

If a worker continually disobeys the rules he can be dismissed, Reaser said.

"We make it very clear to the contractors," Reaser said, and the school system has never cracked down on multiple tobacco violators on one site.

Even though few students are at school during the summer, the smoking ban is important to maintain continuity and safety, Reaser said.

"If we start making exceptions, it's really, really hard to enforce," he said. "Very little in this world's fair. I guess I'm not concerned about being fair."

As for workers complaining, Reaser said, "I am sure they do, but not to us, because it's non-negotiable."

Perhaps it's non-negotiable on paper, but in reality, some smokers sneak under the wire.

Three Piedmont Virginia Community College students - all well over the age of 18 - flouted the rules at Albemarle High School one night last week, smoking outside a side entrance.

Crystal Kennamer, a 1965 AHS graduate, remembered when students were allowed to smoke, although there was another ban in place in the '60s: No girls could take a public puff.

Kennamer said she could see the wisdom of not allowing students to smoke but added that she was an adult.

Hamid Reza, an English as a Second Language student who was at AHS that night, took a different approach. A former pack-a-day smoker, Reza now smokes just one cigar a day - and only off-campus.

"I heard here it's illegal to smoke in the school area," he said. "It's a law for some reason. Teenagers are coming and going. It's not good for them."

Perhaps the biggest dispute, or at least the most well-known, to stem from the smoking ban came when Crozet builder Daley Craig refused to put out his cigar at a Western Albemarle High School football game last year. After a squabble with a county police officer - and after being ejected from the premises - he launched a crusade that ultimately led to the creation of a police oversight board.

While Craig ran afoul of authorities at the game, Kennamer and her fellow smokers said the ban is rarely enforced during night classes.

A sheriff's car cruised through the parking lot as she spoke.

"This is a tobacco state," she shrugged.

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