Teenagers smoking

[dazzalam]

I just happened to be driving past the entrance to moorhhead this morning, and almost every school kid i saw had a cigarette in their hand or in their mouth. I myself am a smoker, so feel more justified to talk about the evils of smoking oppose to those that never have, first hand knowledge and all that, why do the schools not have someone walking the streests in the morning and punish these children if not for smoking, but for bringing the school into disripute or something, i remeber years ago getting into trouble in my school uniform, and having that 1 used against me, and why are more shops not been prosocuted for selling under 16`s fags, not much excuse when they are in their uniform, dont fine the shops just take their licence to sell them away for six months or so, they dont make much money out of tobacco, its the other goods that are sold at the same time as someone buys it, it would be far more effective than a fine.

[SPUGGIE J]

Kids at school will always have access to fags regardless of punishment dished out to the retailers. It will be more worrying when they are running around with vodka 20/20 or other alcohol during school times. When I was at Moorhead if we were caught the fags were confiscated and no doubt got smoked in the staff room at break. Street cred has a lot to do with the amount of smoking as it did in my time. If a kid wants to smoke then short of locking them in a room away from others and their influence it will alwas happen.

[cashman]

teachers used to patrol the yard @perimiter in my day,didn't stop us we thought it was cool,now i think its stupid @ dangerous(too late was the cry) i still smoke!

[garinda]

I had to go and give a talk at a school in Burnley in March. I was very suprised to see children of all ages in the playground in their break puffing away. Shocking lack of discilpine.

Where do children buy cigarettes from? It's illegal to sell them to them and should be clamped down on.

[grannyclaret]

lets hope it is just tobbacco

[SPUGGIE J]

Some how I doubt GC its has a high street cred value being stoned and proberly the highest if at school.

[Debbie J]

To answer your question Dazzalam streets around schools are not patrolled because whatever a child does outside school hours and gates has nothing to do with the school. To me this is wrong but teachers say the job is hard enough in school time without worrying about what the kids are up to outside hours

[SPUGGIE J]

So what happens if a kid his hit by a bus outside the gate in school hours then?

[cashman]

Originally Posted by Debbie J

To answer your question Dazzalam streets around schools are not patrolled because whatever a child does outside school hours and gates has nothing to do with the school. To me this is wrong but teachers say the job is hard enough in school time without worrying about what the kids are up to outside hours

the job is very hard these days, but i think thats down to a lack of disipline not brought about by the teachers,but by my old fav the doo-good brigade.

[jimmi5bellies]

A point to note is that some kids still at school are already 16 and legally old enough to smoke and enter shops legally and buy them.
When my son enters year 11 he will be 16 on the 5th Sep. Still a full year left at school but still legal to smoke. Thank god, he aint that daft and cant stand people smoking around him.

[SPUGGIE J]

Well a least here is one teenager who has more sence than the others.

[Acrylic-bob]

That's an interesting point; why aren't the health fascists patroling the school yards to root out underage smoking and insisting that retailers who peddle tobacco products to kids are brought before the law?

Teachers are forever whining about how much they care about their pupil's welfare, if they care so much why arent they doing more to stop their pupils from lighting up in the first place. I was incensed at lunchtime when I was listening to what Ruth Kelly had to say about banning certain foods from school meals. She decribed the current state of school meals as a "scandal". Well, excuse me, Miss-right-on-message-Kelly, but isn't the "scandal" down in the first instance to Government underfunding and in the second instance to the descisions of the teaching profession who claim to care so much about the welfare of our children?

As a smoker myself I think that the only way to encourage children who have taken up the habit to stop is to put them in a warm, unventilated room and not to let them out until they have smoked their way through several packets of Capstan Full Strength, one after the other, until they can no longer whine about the violation of their human rights because they are too busy vomiting! Sometimes you have to be cruel to kind.

[SPUGGIE J]

Good piont Ab i wonder if the tax money on fags has something to do with it not being taken seriously?

[Tinkerbelle]

Originally Posted by Debbie J

To answer your question Dazzalam streets around schools are not patrolled because whatever a child does outside school hours and gates has nothing to do with the school.

When did it change then?

The teachers patrolled the streets around school when I was at Moorhead. It was also common knowledge to all students that if you got caught smoking, or any member of the public rang in to school to complain about any misbehaviour whilst we were wearing the schools uniform, even outside of school hours, we were in deep mire the next day at school!

Of course there was a way round it we used to take our school ties off while misbehaving

[accymel]

Ah remember that well yeh Moorhead was stricter them days & maybe why they got more respect than nowadays. You brought shame on the school in or out while in uniform then shame was brought on you too but with this new attitude no wonder it has problems!!