To ask parents not to smoke at the school gates?

[Whatsinanameanyway201]

Every morning myself and my children have to walk through a cloud of smoke. Surely smoking at the school gate is unreasonable??
I've mentioned it to the school but they seem reluctant to address the issue.
Its particularly bugged me this week while I'm suffering from bronchitis. Breathing clean air is hard enough but having to breathe in that crap just to take my children to school it horrendous.

I really don't think I'd approach them anyway, it would do more harm than good. I'm just a bit disappointed with the schools lack of action over it and some people blatent disregard for other people, especially children

Yanbu. I brought this up with the Head at my DS's school to be told there was nothing she could do. She didn't even mention No Smoking signs or anything

Thanks for most of the reasonable responses folks 😊

Asking smokers to desist is a non-starter, outside anywhere other than your home. Smokers view it as some form of right, especially given the areas where smoking has been banned. The only answer would be legally enforceable areas around schools.

Reasonable as long as you also ask car drivers not to belch out pollutants as they drive by. Perhaps they could turn off their engines and push their cars past the school entrance?

I wish they'd do something about all the cars driving up to school, it's ridiculous.
I don't have kids in school and it's smog in a morning, all over the town.
Disgusting parents driving their dc to school instead of walking.

A bit of ciggie smoke
I know it probably isn't nice if you don't smoke, just stick a scarf over your nose as you walk in and out.

SilverySurfer and gillybeanz

YANBU, I smoke but I hop around like a demented ferret trying to keep my smoke away from other people.

If I see a kid and have a cigarette I panic and go through a protracted motion of dancing out of the way.

It is a horrible stink and a saddo thing to do, but druggies will be druggies. There really isn't much of a health risk to you walking past.

YABU.

I'm having a fag right now. I can't imagine ever thinking ooh I'll light up right next to school. I'd be mortified.

It's not something I've ever encountered at our school but it is tiny.

YANBU but I'm afraid that there's a particular set of people on MN who believe smokers are a victimised and marginalised group and fancy themselves as Made in Dagenham types fighting for rights 🙄

YANBU. Thankfully I don't see it at the school gates. This morning it was extra frosty, there was a lady smoking on the way to the school was extra cloudy about a minute from the gate. I did think she was wrong, I'd say lots if parents gave her stares.

I smoked for years but would never do it anywhere near school, or with my DC.

I used to walk both dropping off and picking up, there was plenty of time for a smoke, without having to cuddle the kids, stinking or smoking outside the gate.
I only learned this after ds1 pointed it out to me.
If you smoke you shouldn't do it outside the gate, and most workplaces have rules about doorways being free. Surely the kids are as important as grown up employees.
Surely, it''s a H&S matter.

I stand by my previous comment about cars though.

cherry

YANBU Smoking outside schools is a bit like smoking outside doctors surgeries and hospitals etc.
To me at least, smoke if you like but don't be a dick about it. I have friends who smoke and they go outside when they visit houses, sit down wind when they light up outside and are generally considerate.

You can't request they stop though and to be honest, the type of person who thinks nothing of smoking in crowds of people and around kids are the sort of people who would probably tell you to fuck off and then come on AIBU to write a thread about the awful mother at the school gates who is part of some anti smoker mentality and it's a free world etc

YANBU, OP. It's gross

I would never dare say anything (especially if the school are reluctant!) but I might get my kid to do some passive-aggressive 'don't choke my tiny lungs' poster and stick it on the school gates before school. Check very carefully for onlookers/cctv if you do this.

YABU. Smacks of smuggery at it’s smuggest

I bumped into a friend at the doctors waiting room and he tossed his cigarettes into my lap as he went into his appointment. I was mortified and froze, I was sitting there thinking 'but I'm sitting in the waiting room with cigarettes on my lap'.

So I bolted outside and smoked one.

"YABU. Smacks of smuggery at it’s smuggest"

What is so smug about not wanting people to smoke next to a school?

Yanbu.

There's a school near me that has a small group of parents smoking and spitting on the pavement. I can only imagine what that Head has to put up with.

YANBU. Smoking is now socially unacceptable, and smokers should realise that and act accordingly. I do. I move away from others or don't smoke, I don't smoke outside schools, hospitals, Dr surgery etc.
But then my opinion won't count will it, obviously because I smoke now and again I'm branded a particular 'type' of person, that doesn't take others into consideration ever. If I give up tomorrow will my personality suddenly change?!

YNBU but keep on at the school about it.

Our school had to put up a no vaping sign alongside the no smoking sign too because neither rule was being respected.

Hope you're feeling better soon

YABU. Smacks of smuggery at it’s smuggest

What's smug about that?

There is a school near me where parents actually breathe outside the gates.

How very dare they?!