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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Would you report it if you saw and adult buying cigarettes for school children?

51 replies

gilmoregirl · 26/04/2012 13:26

I live next door to a corner shop and on the same street as a school.

There is work being done on the building and I saw the guy from the builders talking to some of the school children as I walked past.

He had been into the shop to buy cigarettes for them - he handed them over telling the girls they were 15p short today.

should I report this to the shop / school / building company or just mind my own?

OP posts:

Sparklingbrook · 26/04/2012 13:28

I would let the shop know, and also report it to the building company. But is it possible the guy doing it is the owner of the building company?

Olympia2012 · 26/04/2012 13:28

Report.... What's in it for him I wonder? The adoration of schoolgirls... How far would he go? He has no morals so I would report

StrandedBear · 26/04/2012 13:29

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WorraLiberty · 26/04/2012 13:29

Did they look 16 or over?

If you're going to report to anyone, I'd say the shop because the shop keeper might have no idea.

Original poster

gilmoregirl · 26/04/2012 13:31

I would say the girls were maybe 13 or 14 - hard to say. Obviosly they must have been well enough under 16 not to be able to buy cigarettes themselves.

Was so shocked anyone woudl do that.

Did wonder what was in it for him too.

OP posts:

corlan · 26/04/2012 13:32

Tell the school. Phone and ask if you can speak to the head or someone from the senior management team.

I'd be less worried about the fact the kids are smoking, than the fact that the builder is behaving inappropriately with a group of schoolgirls. I'd be worried if anything else was going on. (I know I sound a bit paranoid but I work in a school

and I would definitely report it)

WorraLiberty · 26/04/2012 13:33

You need to be 18 to buy cigarettes though and produce I.D

13 or 14 is too young I think but it won't stop them smoking.

When I was that age, we always asked adults or older teens to buy them for us.

Sparklingbrook · 26/04/2012 13:35

If they were in uniform they would generally be 16 and under. Would the school get involved-if it didn't happen in school time or school property?

Original poster

gilmoregirl · 26/04/2012 13:36

I would assume that the shop would be unlikely to serve school children.

Do wonder how they came to this arrangement with this guy though - very odd.

Didn't realise you ahd to be 18 to buy cigarettes thank you!

OP posts:

Flisspaps · 26/04/2012 13:36

I'd inform the shop.

sugarice · 26/04/2012 13:37

I don't see the shopkeeper being bothered to be honest. He's selling to an adult and I wouldn't imagine he's going to question a customer about what he's doing with the fags. I'd phone the school report the inappropriate behaviour from the builder.

Whoopydofoxpoo · 26/04/2012 13:37

I would also report it to the local community policing team.

corlan · 26/04/2012 13:38

The school would be interested because there may be child protection issues.

All you would need to do is report it to the school and they decide whether there is anything to be worried about.Job done!

WorraLiberty · 26/04/2012 13:39

I doubt it's an 'arrangement' as such.

My friends and I used to take it in turns to ask random strangers if they looked half friendly.

We had plenty bollockings from people too (and rightly so!)

hackmum · 26/04/2012 13:39

I certainly hope the school would get involved! They would want to tell the parents at the very least, assuming they could find out who the girls were. Which building is the man working on? Is it the school itself?

StrandedBear · 26/04/2012 13:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Sparklingbrook · 26/04/2012 13:40

If the school do get involved that's good, but I am not convinced TBH. How far is the shop from the school?

WorraLiberty · 26/04/2012 13:40

My kid's school will get involved in anything like that if the kids are in uniform.

TheSinglePringleWillicopters · 26/04/2012 13:41

It won't be an arrangement and just because its a man buying for girls.doesn't mean he's creepy. If it was a man buying for school boys or a woman buying for school boys it would be different

I used to wait outside the shop and ask anyone who was going in to buy me cigs

lattelov3r · 26/04/2012 13:45

how times changes 'what was in it for him' 'child protection' when i was in my teens (12 years ago) it was the norm even then to ask passer bys to get you cigs or alcohol not really a new thing, i dont agree with it and would never buy for minors myself (have been asked) but i would likely just mind my own tbh its very difficult to gauge the age of teens they could of been 16/17 anyway i suppose

BabyDubsEverywhere · 26/04/2012 13:45

I dont think there has to be anything sinister going on, we always used to ask adults to buy cigarettes for us. If we found anyone willing who was around we would ask them every day. If this guy is working on the building site next door they and has said yes once they will be asking him every day.

WorraLiberty · 26/04/2012 13:46

Exactly Pringle

It was the 'soft touch' adults who used to say yes and they were male and female.

TheSinglePringleWillicopters · 26/04/2012 13:50

Last year I was waiting outside a shop meeting a friend and a lad no older then 14 said the following to me ''ill go in to the shop for you if you want, he serves me all the time"

I was 20 and yet he thought I was waiting for someone to into the shop. I must have looked younger then him

Yellowtip · 26/04/2012 13:58

It's not illegal for the adult builder to buy the cigarettes, nor for the shop to sell them to the builder, nor for the under 18's to smoke.

I expect their school would intervene if their pupils are smoking in uniform, but that's about it.

Is it an anti-smoking thing OP?

Floggingmolly · 26/04/2012 14:07

"You're 15p short today" sounds like an arrangement to me.

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