By Kameel Stanley
Friday, June 27, 2008
Come Jan. 1, Loudoun County public school employees will no longer be able to light up on campus.
The School Board voted 5-2 Tuesday to ban all smoking on school property. Employees had been allowed to smoke in designated areas, out of view of students.
Most suburban Washington school systems have long had such policies; Fairfax and Montgomery have prohibited staff from smoking anywhere on school grounds since the 1990s.
Loudoun School Board Chairman Robert DuPree, who first proposed the idea a few months ago, said the ban was inevitable and that the board's existing policy was more like a loophole.
"I have seen our world evolve into more and more of a smoke-free environment," he said. "I think we were going to do it; it was a question of when. It was time."
Board members said they set the Jan. 1 deadline to give smoking employees time to adjust and to allow the district to create programs to help those who want to quit.
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But board member J. Warren Geurin (Sterling), who voted against the ban, said it is not the board's job to police people's habits.
"I don't think it's unenforceable," Geurin said. "It's just one of those feel-good things ... It's three parts overzealous and two parts unenforceable."
Geurin said he has never heard complaints from people about the smokers; currently, employees have to go to a designated area, usually a secluded spot in a parking lot or near a loading dock to light up.
Geurin said that while the policy promotes health, it says nothing about penalties for ignoring the ban.
"It just wasn't well thought out," he said. "It's like we're saying, 'we're smarter than you and we're going to make you healthy by golly or not.'"
School Board Vice Chairman John Stevens (Potomac), who supported the ban, said he made his final decision about the issue only after thinking about it for a few weeks. He said he struggled with not wanting to dictate private habits that don't affect performance while staying focused on students.
In the end, he said, it came down to being consistent and setting an example for young people.
"None of our students can legally use tobacco products," Stevens said. "I think it is a consistent practice for the adults to not use it on site."
The move also fits in with the district's goals about encouraging health and wellness, DuPree said. He said he has not heard any complaints about the change.
"I don't think this is going to be an enormous factor for most people," he said. "A year from now, this is going to be a fact of life."
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