To be furious to see one of dd's teachers smoking outside the school gates in full view of school-children arriving

[pcworld]

I appreciate that it is a free country and people have the right to smoke. The teacher in question is not smoking within the school grounds. However ... surely there must be somewhere else for school staff to smoke that is out of view of the children? I am very upset about this! What do others think? I'm unsure how to handle it. I would like to say something to the head - along the lines of suggesting that an appropriate place is provided for staff to smoke in. And at the same time praising the teachers, who we have been really pleased with. Any comments?

"And do you as a teacher think you get respect from parents if you smoke outside the school gates in front of the children and their parents?"

Err, yes, I presume, since respect for a teacher has nothing to do with whether or not she smokes.

DD's nursery teacher smokes. She stinks to high heaven, and I have seen her smoke several times outside school gates. Never has it crossed my mind that she should thus be less worthy of my respect.

You need to get a life.

"you need to get a life"

A brilliant argument! Now I see your pov so clearly.

some of my best teacher's smoked liked lums.smoking does not detract from teaching ability

I am close friends with several families who have children who go to the school where I teach. I teach some of their children.

These children have seen me drinking. I'll be next for the chop, I can tell!

Thankfully their parents have a reasonable outlook on life, and as yet have not campained to have me struck off the teaching reg, or tarred and feathered.

The thing that irritates me most with the OP is her immediate response is to report this woman to her boss.

Not have a quiet word, one adult to another. Oh no! Report it to the boss. How nice. How kind. How utterly lacking in balls. If you can't say it to the woman directly, mind your business.

"you need to get a life" How fucking original.
Ciaow.

MartinBishop, were you drinking outside the schoolgates right after school?

I have been to the pub after school last summer (in fact most summers) and sat in the beer garden with my colleagues and pupils have walked past...

Also, drinking is different as it's perceived rightly or wrongly (different thread!?) to be alright in moderation. Smoking isn't something that is ok in moderation.

aah so i am ok to be in pub garden but if i dare to light up (in my own time i hasten to add).....

No I wasn't drinking outside the school gate, I was sitting in the living room , next to a kid I teach.

I taught him well before this horrid event, and just as well after.

Amazingly his mother was sitting there as well, she was also drinking and was, and is, a wonderful parent.

What larks, eh?

Drinking in a pub simply does not equate to smoking outside the school gate! Not at all. Pubs are places you drink. Schools are not places you smoke. If it's not ok just inside the school gate, stepping through and doing it on the other side is not ok either IMO. Everywhere I have worked has had a rule that we must not smoke where any visitors would see us because it looks bad we had to find somewhere else to lurk!

km why not just tell them that cigarettes contain nicotine which is addicitive.

telling them that it will give their teacher cancer isn't very educative is it

yes it does look bad. But we should put this bad image into perspective.

If you had to prioritise the top five - hell, even the top 10 - things we want from a teacher, would 'smoking in a place where pupils can see' rate at all? Is that something that would merit a complaint to the headteacher?

so do lots of things

but it's the 'scaring the shit out of them' argument that kids will purposefully try to break down as they see living, apparently healthy, smoking people all around them.

That's another issue, though, I suppose.

If the OP is that upset, why not be adult and talk to the teacher directly.

Always the same on mn, a teacher does something and the knee jerk reaction is , Call the Head, Board of governers, LEA, God.

Never the poor bloody teacher.

Its odd, but if someone annoys me, I tend to tell them first, before going to their boss

Kerrymum. It's discreet. 'Discrete' means a seperate thing, a thing apart.

As you were.

and lots of children might just panic at the thought of a much-liked person dying horribly at any moment, so it's understandable they deny the possibility.

Just because you were a smoker doesn;t make you right . Quite a few of us are/were smokers.

yes was going to say what the dog said