Teacher smoking outside school gates

[Omzlas]

I've been pondering over this since Friday and thought I'd consult the MN gurus

There's a teacher at DC school who smokes, fine. The school is almost at the end of a dead end road and I've seen her before, smoking at the very end of the road at the end of school. She was well away from the gates but lots of kids walk that way on their way home, she'd often be chatting to a mother etc and I've never given it that much thought

On Friday, she was stood less than 3ft away from the school gates, smoking. All children would see her as they came out of the gates as you can only turn left or right as you exit and she was stood between the gate and white railing (the kind put in place to stop kids running out of the gate and into the road).

My AIBU: surely this is an appalling message to send to children? I'm an ex smoker and wouldn't begrudge anyone a cigarette if that's how they want to live, but surely not smack outside the school gates? Do I speak to the head or am I being precious? I completely understand that children are likely to see their parents smoking but... at school? A teacher?

I don't know whether I'm overreacting or if my concerns are valid and I should speak to the head. It's a small school (one class per year) but the head isn't that approachable, should I just bite the bullet and speak to her? Mind my own and ignore it?

I see people smoking every day, just walking around, sat outside Costa, in their cars, stood at bustops. In fact you have to light a cig at a bus stop because it makes the bus come. .

Likely school policy forcing her off grounds, to the stream of children leaving

YANBU.

Jeez I need a fag after reading these comments! So us smokers are 'vile', 'crass' and 'vulgar'?! Good god, it's a cigarette not Class A heroin.

'You wouldn't want a teacher bending down to help you' after having a cigarette? I don't particularly want to bend down and help little Johnny after his backside emits a smell that indicates he needs raking out, but I do.

And btw, I smell beautiful with my copious amounts of perfume and get lots of lovely comments (I recommend New Look Pure Dusk as the best coverer-upper!) 👍🏼

I think it is very rude of a smoker to smoke at school gates directly in front of where children are walking. There's not really a need for it when you can move a few steps away.

But I dont care at all that it was a teacher. If the children were leaving she was finished for the day officially and she probably needed it either after a stressful day or before starting an extra few hours of after school work/marking/clubs etc.

Smoking is gross but it isn’t illegal. Leave the teacher be.

Bet your the kind of person who wouldn’t like to see a teacher having some drinks with friends in a pub as well.

BlueSkiesLies, drinking isn't illegal either. Would you be happy with a teacher standing outside the school gate necking lagers with vodka follow-ups?

If the children were leaving she was finished for the day officially

Not necessarily. There are plenty of things teachers are required to do in school after teaching hours.

I don't think you can compare the effects of a cigarette with the effects of alcohol.

Whilst a cigarette will give the smoker a pleasurable feeling and make them temporarily feel relaxed it will not affect their ability to walk or talk in the way that being intoxicated by alcohol would do. Both of them are (at the moment) legal drugs.

I have commented on what I think about the teacher in question smoking directly outside the school in my previous comment above.

The area between the start/end of the school boundary and the metal gates that are often placed just outside is a 'grey' area. Years ago at my daughters primary school parents were using the railings to tie up their dog. The Headmaster at the time sent out a letter asking parents not to tie dogs to the railings. He could not enforce that as the railings were actually council property and parents were within their rights to use them.

“Lizzie48

@JRMisOdious

But think about it. If you travel to hospital by car, you won't see anyone smoking, as hospitals are strictly non smoking. Same with restaurants and shops. I think the reason we don't see smokers at all is because we don't use public transport, we go to places by car. (And yes, I know that car exhaust fumes are not healthy.)

I find it strange too. When I was growing up, we saw smokers everywhere.“

I’m usually in a car for 15 minutes on weekdays. I walk about a lot, usually out for 3 hours most days, and hardly ever see anyone smoking.
I don’t think it’s strange, I think it’s excellent.
To see anyone smoking these days looks weird. (Notwithstanding e-cigarettes of course, which seem to be a step forward, though the jury’s still out on the health implications of those).

On the walk between hospital car park and entrance I would pass half a dozen smokers easily. They smoke outside restaurants too. Do you have your car windows blacked out as there are plenty of smokers on the streets as well.

If she smokes outside school the kids will be able to smell it on her whether she walks further away from the school gates or not. If you are non smoker you can smell smoke a mile away. Teachers should not be smoking full stop.

Why on earth would an intelligent woman even start? It makes you stink, your teeth go yellow and your skin goes wrinkly. I don't get the attraction at all

I would have absolutely no problem with seeing a teacher having a drink in the pub with friends. The difference between smoking and drinking alcohol is that it is entirely possible to drink responsibly and in moderation.

Smoking is never ok.

The difference between smoking and drinking alcohol is that it is entirely possible to drink responsibly and in moderation.
Smoking is never ok.

Because?

Hospitals may display a strictly no smoking sign yet this is not adhered to at all. I attend hospital/hospitals weekly and since August 2018 have had two long inpatient stays. Patients and staff smoke within the hospital grounds and ignore the sign. Myself included although I tended to smoke the furthest distance I could go away from the building itself. I was not permitted to leave the hospital grounds, otherwise I would have smoked outside of their boundaries.

Travelling to a hospital whether by car, bus, bike or train it is virtually rare to not at some point see someone smoking.

To the person that questions why would you ever start smoking due to the negativity that it poses to your life, looks etc. It is an addiction. Why do people take that first drink of alcohol? Why do people take that first bite of chocolate?

In my case it was to some extent 'learnt behaviour'. With smoking I was a child of the 70's. Health scares surrounding smoking was not rife at that time. I grew up with both parents heavy smokers and smoked indoors. Went I went to see a GP it was not a rarity to see the GP with fag in hand and slugging a tot of whisky.

Awareness is now there alas for the people growing up within that era are/were already established smokers/drinkers. A habit that has gone on for decades is very hard to break.

I don't think this is professional at all. I think that at a time when the children are leaving, she should absolutely not be smoking in an area where she can be seen. Usually, you would be expected to still be available for queries and problems.

I say this as a teacher.

Yes, hospitals are theoretically non smoking. I know that because the smokers hang around right by the entrance/exit, right underneath the bloody no smoking sign! Which no-one seems to do anything to enforce.

No, don’t drive round with windows blacked out, nor with blindfold when walking for hours each day. Just rarely if ever see smokers (apart from at the hospital at my husbands regular appointments). To be fair, I do tend to walk routes used by lots of people exercising, who are unlikely to be smokers. Even in our town centre though, I usually only see vaping/e-cigarettes. Depends where you live I suppose. We’re in the Northwest, suburban area where thank goodness the message seems to have well and truly sunk in.

If you travel to hospital by car, you won't see anyone smoking, as hospitals are strictly non smoking.

Best thing I’ve read all day, fulfilled the hilarity quota. Yes, they are meant to be non-smoking premises .........

JRMisOdious we've obviously been very lucky with our DD1's hospital appointments, and she's had lots of them, for her sight and hearing loss. Or maybe it's because people are more considerate around children. (I can't remember seeing anyone smoking at children's playgrounds either.)

I have seen plenty of smokers myself when out for a drink in the evening without my DDs, though.

Absolutely none of your business what a teacher does outside of school hours . I am an Irish teacher, teaching primary in Ireland. I cannot get over how involved parents on this site seem to be in the day to day running of their children’s school/ discipline/ contacting teachers outside of school hours and the list goes on. I cannot understand why so many of the children of parents who post/ add about their children’s schools and teachers don’t home school them . In my own situation, we come to work, we do our job, we follow procedure and policy and we go home if not engaging in voluntary after school activity for the children .There is no way that parents contacting teachers outside of school hours would be tolerated, unless teacher expressedly agreed to this. Discipline seems to be another area that parents feel they can decide on within school hours. Discipline is based on procedure and policy within each school, so if a parent doesn’t like the way their child is disciplined, having agreed to these policies in enrolement, then don’t send them to that school! The amount of threads I’ve read on here that give me the impression that their school is some child minding facility is incredible ! And I’m not a smoker!!!

“I have seen plenty of smokers myself when out for a drink in the evening without my DDs”

That may be it. Don’t go out for evening drinks without DDs. We’re not paragons of virtue, just anti social old gits who prefer a bottle of wine at home on a Friday night. Kids happily go out without us, of course . I’m out during the day, smokers are an incredibly rare site.

The hospital thing drives us nuts though. Without fail, you have to hold your nose to get through the fog, every time. Some of them, drips, wheelchairs, look as though they’re on their last legs but still manage to get downstairs and force their smoke on everyone else going in and out. For goodness sake, at least move 20ft away, don’t sit in front of the entrance!
If the hospital is going to have a no smoking policy, they need to enforce it.

I'm personally not bothered if people choose to smoke in the beer garden, as long as they don't do it indoors. They have a perfect right to do so and I can choose to sit somewhere else.

I don't disbelieve you all about people smoking in hospitals; I just haven't experienced it myself (not since the smoking ban anyway). And it isn't something we would have failed to notice, as my DH is asthmatic and smoking bothers him a lot. It's the height of selfishness, that's for sure.

Absolutely none of your business what a teacher does outside of school hours

Except when she makes it everyone's business by doing in in front of them and their children. And it's unlikely to be out of school hours - teachers' directed time usually includes time to clear up the classroom at the end of the school day, stay for inset training, departmental, year group and general staff meetings, parent-teacher evenings, other pastoral work, running after school clubs etc etc.

I've never smoked, not even tried it, once burnt a hole in £5000 worth of carpet, but, why are teachers always expected to be such paragons of virtue? Not smoke, drink, get pictures on Facebook etc etc, at the end of the day they're human beings and as these things aren't illegal, yet, I don't see why teachers particularly are pilloried. The bleat of 'role models' is pathetic, children should have parents for that mainly and I doubt that the perfect parent exists.