Registered User
...What's that saying about 'with friends like these'?
Well its achieved 4 of my friends to quit, so I beg to differWow, i'm a non smoker for the record but i'm pretty sure "shaming" someone isn't going to achieve anything
In all seriousness though, I don't care what sort of behaviour, habit or thought process we're talking about - anyone who tries to 'shame' their *friends* into stopping something, is no friend at all. Let's just go around 'shaming' overweight people into not eating so much junk food and call ourselves their 'mates', shall we? All other discussions aside, I really think this group-think labelling of smokers/smoking as 'filthy', 'anti-social' etc is just PATHETIC. You know what's funny, is being so overly concerned about the potential for teenagers to take up an 'anti-social' habit because it's the social thing to do. LOL! Doesn't that just defeat the whole 'smoking is anti-social' argument? I would argue that tobacco is indeed one of the most 'social' drugs out there...
Registered User
I am meeting with someone tomorrow, the tennis courts are not used, they don't even have nets up. The courts are in an open space (no where to hide if they wern't allowed to smoke) in very clear view of teachers on duty and to the public walking past.
Regards,
Dianne
BellyBelly Life Subscriber
I care enough about my friends to not turn a blind eye when they are lighting up cancer sticks. I don't give a flying duck if it shames them, I don't want to be burying them early because of a smoking related illness.
Registered User
I wasn't going to say anything about this topic but .....
I smoked at school, we had areas that were the "smoking" areas, not official areas as smoking wasn't allowed, but areas where everybody knew where to go to smoke, you rarely got non-smokers in there, but if they were they knew the risks.
Yeh I drank at school too, amongst other things. I drank at home, when I wanted to, I didn't have to go out at night and hide the fact that I wanted a drink.
If students are going to smoke, then I'd prefer they were somewhere safe to do so. Offer the students the opportunity to quit if they want to, with the proper support, but they need to decide to stop, they shouldn't be shamed into doing something.
I like the idea that Glam's school had, that you had to have a pass to go to smoke. It makes you accountable and visible.
I don't smoke around children, I don't smoke where children are, if I want a smoke then I will have one, which is usually only when I drink now and I'm cutting down, because I want to, not because a "friend" has shamed me into doing it.
Registered User
My DP smokes, and his sister and her husband do as well. Once people have smoked for a couple of decades they are already ashamed so that doesn't work. Repeated attempts to quit might do though.
BellyBelly Life Subscriber
Can I just make this clear:
There seems to be a misunderstanding in this thread that I stand around my friends on my soap box and quote Quit ads like a DVD player on loop, I don't. I don't say anything unless the smoke is blowing in my face or I ask them to go outside my house.
What I was referring to before, was the new legislations regarding smoke free shopping centres, hospitals, pubs and clubs - they isolate smokers and this can make some of them feel ashamed - which can be a motivation to quit, as it was for some of my friends. Therefore, I don't approve of introducing smoke approved areas inside public places like schools, as it seems to be in opposition to current legislation and community goals.
Registered User
@ being ashamed of being a smoker... are you for real?
I smoked for 15 years, and I was never and am still not ashamed of being a smoker. And I can tell you had my friends tried to "shame" me ibto quitting, I would have told them to bugger off.
Registered User
Interesting thread. Not entirely sure where what I think about it. I'm not sure it's the best thing for every school but, in saying that, my younger brothers school did have a smoker area and it worked well. They also had quit programs and education on the danger of smoking. My little brother is the only one that went to this school and out of the four of us sibling, is the only one that hasn't been a smoker. Interesting.
I am a smoker *hide*and can tell you that it's the forbidden factor that gets you started. I can also tell you that shaming a smoker has the complete opposite affect. It makes a smoker want to smoke more, not less.to successfully quit a smoker has to do it for themselves and no amount of rules or shaming is going to change that. I'm in the process of quitting with champix and it's taken me a long time to take that step.
Registered User
Had meeting this morning and it is confirmed that there is a designated smoking area. It was put forward at School Council and approved. Students attendance has improved so is working for both students and school. I can see both sides to this, I guess it's just hard as a mum to understand.
Regards,
Dianne
Registered User
maybe i'm turning into an old fuddy duddy these days but i would not be happy with a smoking area at my children's school.
smoking directly causes cancer. schools are for education. you want to smoke? go somewhere else.
Registered User
I think this is the issue. Kids are going somewhere else, and missing their lessons as a result. Although I don't like the idea of a smoking area at a school, if there is that much of an issue with non attendance then anything that will encourage the kids to continue their education could be a good thing.
Registered User
sorry but i just don't agree. what they do on their own time is up to them, but they should not be smoking at school.
i have been a high school teacher for 5 years and i do not believe that something as dangerous as smoking should be allowed under any circumstance. we have a duty of care to students, and this includes looking after their health and well being.
eta- if a student can't get through a school day without smoking, then i would suggest that student needs to look into doing something about their addiction, not expecting the school to cater to their needs.
Last edited by Ginger; February 26th, 2011 at 02:11 PM.
Registered User
You see though, kids are going to smoke at school regardless. Except without a designated area, it's going to be at the back of the oval or in the toilets that every other student has to use. You are never going to stop the kids from smoking at school, if attendance is up, if smoking is only designated to one spot so as to reduce passive smoking then, I actually think this could be a good thing.
If you can't stop it ( and you can't) then something needs happen, doesn't it?
Registered User
Why not just set up a bar on campus...so the kids have somewhere to drink and smoke while at school??
I know that is an exaggeration but I would be straight down the school if I knew they where letting them smoke on campus...it is something that I will not allow them to do at home and I would expect the school to follow the law and active discourage students from smoking.
By giving them a designated area they are condoning what the kids are doing...telling them it is ok...and I do not think that is ok on any level.
And I am an ex-smoker...it is a horrible habit and I make sure my kids know the physical, medical, social and financial ramifications of smoking.
Sorry but it is something I feel passionately about.
Registered User
What do you suggest they do instead? Because what's going on in schools now isn't working.
BellyBelly Life Member - Love all your MCN friends
PE seems to be an "specialised subject" now. Some schools have no PE teacher, and very little PE happens. it's no longer "part of the curriculum". PE has been squeezed out, to pay for computers.
Moderator
Surely a school's first duty is to educate.
If they have to make compromises to do that I'm sure that they don't do it without thinking long and hard about it especially when the compromise is so likely to be unpopular.
It's sad enough that children are destroying their health without having to give up on their education too. You can quit smoking when you're older but once you drop out of school it's much harder to get back into education. Even if you do re-enter as a mature student lots of companies don't like offering internships and graduate positions to students with a mature entry to uni.
IMO if this school's retention rates have improved then they have made the right choice.
Registered User
i believe that any quality school should do everything it can do eradicate smoking all together. this includes constant patrolling of known smokers' areas- such as the back of the oval. classical music should be played in the toilets at all times to discourage students from hanging around in the toilets (don't laugh, this actually works) and Quit programs should be mandatory for any student caught smoking. Children need protection from harmful things, not designated areas.
i have been well known at my school to spend lunchtimes going into the girls' toilets and standing outside all the locked cubicles and asking to borrow a lighter, then suspending all the girls that open their doors to offer me their lighter (thinking that i'm another student), ciggie hanging out of their mouth.
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