Smoking passes in High School

[rbnyc]

I was just remembering when my Dad took me to my High School registration my freshmen year, 1982. He was asked if he wanted to sign a consent form so that I would be allowed to go to the "smoking section"--a shed behind the school--during my lunch hour. I didn't smoke, but he signed it anyway, believing I should be free to hang out with the smokers if I pleased. On the bottom of my school ID was the word smoking and a box checked "yes".

I'm wondering if other people around my age had a similar system in their High Schools. And I'm also wondering if younger people find this to be a completely alien and weird concept and how much the environment in High Schools has changed around issues like this.

:smoke:

[thom1102]

1. We had the smoking circle, and no pass or permission was necessary

I avoided it like the plague! I was a good boy O8)

[rbnyc]

2. What years did you go to High School?

BTW, I was a bad girl, but I didn't smoke cigarettes until college.

:evilgrin:

[thom1102]

6. 1984-1987...

Okay, so I wasn't THAT good, but I never smoked, only tried pot once (when I was 27), and never tried anything harder. I was a sex fiend, though. I was such a horndog, I would fool around with just about anything back then.

[rbnyc]

8. LOL, me too! (nt)

[ET Awful]

11. Me too :)

Damn, there's a lot of the class of '87 here :).

We had both a circle and a "ditch" (which was a big ravine across the street). The circle was for the more "classy" smokers (preppies and such), and the ditch was where all us long-haired freaks spent our time :).

[thom1102]

15. When I was in Junior High, we had the "Egg Pond"

Right across the street from the school. It was this ditch with a pond in it, and the water was sulfurous. That was where all the long haired freaks hung out in Jr High.

[sasquatch]

3. my Mom used to talk about our High School having one

She is a Home Ec. teacher and she said in the 70's our High School had a patch of grass where the kids that were allowed to smoke could go and smoke.

[jburton]

4. Hmmm.

We weren't allowed to smoke, but it was fairly common knowledge that people looked the other way if you went behind a storage building.
This was in the early-mid 90s

Now, the entire district is 'tobacco free zone' which means even 'grown ups' can't smoke on the grounds. Staff have to walk across the street to smoke.

[Racenut20]

7. Had to go

across the street to the gas station in high school, but the junior college was called "high school with ash trays".

[rbnyc]

9. LOL, that's so funny.

It's especially funny when I think of the local Junior College where I was growing up. I didn't go to school there, but I dated a lot of guys there when I was about 15.

[BigMcLargehuge]

5. yep, we had smoking areas behind every shop

the rule was you had to go to the smoking area of your chosen shop and couldn't mingle with students in other shops. We also had dedicated smoking areas WITHIN the school during dances.

[LynneSin]

10. We had them at our school

It was some place behind the Auditorium wing of our school. I had music class during a lunchtime period and we could see all the kids who were going out to smoke during their lunch break. I think you had to be in 10th grade to apply for one (your parents had to approve and my school was 7-12th grade).

I'm glad to see schools are no longer allowing this. I can tell you that alot of the kids who were in that music class (it was in 8th grade) always checked to see who was going out to the smokers area and couldn't wait to join them in 2 years. However by the time our class was old enough to join the smoking circle, the school banned it (however, they didn't ban smoking in the teacher's lounge - geez you could get lounge cancer passing that room, which was the first room when you walked down the hallway to your classrooms.

[rbnyc]

14. I'm glad it's changed too.

Although one thing that I did like about it was that in flew in the face of the law. It was illegal for kids that age to smoke, but the school policy valued the parents' authority over the law. There is something liberating in that assertion.

[NashVegas]

16. We Had to Sneak

The girls' & boys' rooms at my high school - who on earth did we think we were kidding? To get caught would get you "three days in the glass cage," as we liked to call our in-school suspension booth.

One year there was a mass walk-out of students when the vice-principle (a guy) started coming into the girls' room. Got TV coverage and everything :)

[YellowRubberDuckie]

12. I was in high school from 93-97

And if you got caught smoking anywhere during school hours, you got suspended. Didn't matter if you were off campus at lunch. If the principal or a member of the faculty saw you, you were toast. I never smoked, and everyone who did were dickheads, so when we saw one getting caught, it was just a couple more days without them. Good riddence. Of course, those were the idiots that always stunk of stale cigarettes and sexually harrassed me...so...I had no sympathy.
Duckie

[Nikia]

21. It was a suspended offense in my high school too

There were a few teachers that would go on smoker hunts also. There were hall monitors between classes too. Our school was small. I don't know of anyone who was stupid enough to smoke during school.

[proud patriot]

13. The year I graduated was the year they stopped allowing smoking on

Campus ....class of 87 :D

We could smoke anywhere outside ...There was no designated
area .

[eyesroll]

17. I attended HS 1989-1993.

My freshman year, there was an outdoor "smoking pit" that only seniors could use. Turns out they were phasing it out year by year, and the seniors were grandfathered.

The following year, no more smoking. Juniors and seniors had off-campus privileges, though, so they'd just smoke there, or in a toilet stall.

[Melsky]

18. Class of 87 too!

We had a smoker's square, but only for juniors and seniors. I did not smoke cigarrettes in high school!

[SiouxJ]

19. Yeah, we had a smoking area

(I graduated in '82) It was where all the "stoners" hung out. I had friends that frequented that area but I had given up my stoner ways before I got to HS. I took a stab at being a stoner in 7th and 8th grade and cleaned up my act when I got to HS O8) .

[mitchum]

20. (74-78) no smoking pass required. There was an area on the lawn ...

in front of the school where the smoking of ANYTHING was tolerated between classes and during lunch. The neighborhood dealers would pull up with their nickelbags and dimebags. Incredible! But what is even more incredible is the fact that we were all engaging in heavy recreational drug use and sex, but NO ONE ever brought a gun to school and shot anyone. I would like to ask the "moral crusaders", why?