More schools smoke-free, but not likely in Lafayette
Just as more cities have adopted smoking bans, more schools are moving beyond just banning tobacco inside buildings to banning it anywhere on campus.
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Just as more cities have adopted smoking bans, more schools are moving beyond just banning tobacco inside buildings to banning it anywhere on campus.
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Nearly two-thirds of Indiana school districts have adopted campuswide tobacco-free policies, according to policies collected by Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation. All schools are tobacco-free buildings.But Anita Galliard, the group's community programs director, said there's still work to do."The Centers for Disease Control says the single best way to stop people from smoking is to have a 100 percent smoke-free policy in place," Galliard said. "Over half the kids are covered (by those policies at school). That still leaves a lot of students unprotected."Tippecanoe School Corp. is one of 189 districts in the state to remove tobacco on its grounds and at school-sponsored activities, which Galliard said is what the CDC deems an "effective" policy.Fourteen other districts in Greater Lafayette have tobacco-free grounds as well, but in this county both Lafayette and West Lafayette school corporations don't have the comprehensive bans.Lafayette School Corp.'s board of trustees discussed the idea of moving toward a smoke-free campus during a recent work session but decided the current policy does an adequate job and is enforceable.LSC's policy covers smoke-free buildings and corporation vehicles, Superintendent Ed Eiler said, but it also has provisions for designated smoking areas during football games and allows smoking away from school entrances."Everybody's preference would be totally tobacco-free," Eiler said, "but you run into issues. ... If you took the position of the whole campus is tobacco-free, then ... how much time, effort, expense are you willing to put in to enforce?"He said enforcement would be a challenge in personal vehicles and also the sidewalks around the schools, where people could go smoke.Despite the challenges, there is some sentiment to move in that direction.Bob Durham, who has six children in LSC, said smoking was the worst habit he ever picked up, and he'd like to see tobacco banned at school functions."We lead by example for the kids," Durham said.William Dukes has a son in seventh grade at Tecumseh Junior High School and a daughter who has already graduated high school. The nonsmoker said he would be behind an all-campus tobacco ban."It would show a good example," said Dukes. "I think it should be smoke-free."
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