Vance schools go tobacco-free


The Vance County Board of Education approved a pair of policies Monday night to turn all school property and all school-related activities into tobacco-free zones.

The action makes Vance County the 53rd of the 117 school districts in North Carolina to institute a no-tobacco-products policy for adults as well as students.

The policy action is not a response to any particular problem or incident in Vance County. Instead, it is part of a movement championed by the Health and Wellness Trust Fund, which the state created with a portion of its money from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement with the big cigarette companies.

The idea behind the policy is that children shouldn’t be exposed to adult role models using cigarettes, snuff or any other tobacco products. To some people, that public-health motivation conflicts with individual rights regarding legal products.

One of the new policies bars school employees, volunteers, contractors, visitors and students from using any tobacco product in any school facility or vehicle, on school grounds, in any location used by the school district for school purposes, or at any school-sponsored or -related activity off school grounds. No adults working or volunteering for the school system could use tobacco in the presence of students on or off school grounds.

The policy goes into effect July 1.

The second policy specifically addresses students, who already were barred from using tobacco products on school grounds. Most of the changes to the student policy are technical to make it mesh with the expanded adult policy, but it also clarifies that the ban applies whenever a student is subject to the supervision of school personnel, regardless of whether they are on school property.

The student and adult policies also specify that the school system will try to provide information and access to programs to help people avoid or stop smoking.

School board member Gloria White, who heads the Policy Committee, first brought the tobacco-free policies before the board Feb. 14, but the objections of the board’s newest member, tobacco farmer Pete Falkner, led to the proposals being tabled.

White brought them back unchanged Monday night.

Falkner again spoke against the adult policy: “I’m still not going to go along with that.”

He said the policy could drive off potential teachers who smoke.

Told that more than 50 other North Carolina school districts have banned tobacco, Falkner said: “Why do we have to do what everybody else does?”

Emeron Cash said he supported the policy change in part because everybody else does it. Given that people from Vance can’t smoke when they travel to other counties for athletic events, he doesn’t think others should be able to come to Vance and litter school grounds with cigarette butts.

Falkner said the public is against the policy. He cited that morning’s “Town Talk” show on WIZS-AM (1450); most of the callers to the show supported allowing adults to smoke outside on school grounds.

“I realize smoking is bad,” board member Robert Duke said Monday night, but cigarettes and other tobacco products are legal. “I’m tired of individual rights being dismantled one by one.”

White responded that individual rights end when they infringe on the rights of others, although it wasn’t clear how teachers smoking outside on breaks, for example, would be infringing on others’ rights.

The board approved the policy 5-2, with Falkner and Duke opposed.

The student policy passed without discussion or opposition, although Falkner abstained.

The Board of Education had little to say about other policy changes Monday night:

* The board voted 7-0 to change its official monthly meeting place from Henderson Middle School to the Administrative Services Building on Graham Avenue. Now the policy matches the reality that has existed since last spring.

* The board voted 7-0 to allow the schools superintendent to approve overnight field trips that arise on short notice because of competitions. Previously, the school board had to approve every overnight field trip.

* The board accepted the first reading of a new policy that addresses accounting procedures. As Finance Director Rudi Ligon explained things, the policy sets a book value for fixed assets of $5,000 instead of $500 and allows the sale of surplus items of little value to be sold without board approval, although such sales would be itemized for the board. The policy will need approval on second reading to go into effect.