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?

From Liffey

"It is vital that a teacher prioritise their young pupils OVER their need for a puff."

So where do you live? La-la land?

So teachers must not partake in activities that could potentially corrupt young minds because they are The role models and must be perfect in all things.

It's not that the teacher is unprofessional because she smokes. She might be the most professional teacher in the world, and smoke, and wear scruffy clothes or whatever. It's just that the perception of many other people may equate these things with unprofessionalism, and if you want to be taken seriously in your job you have to be mindful of your professional image. That's just the way of the world and you are living in la-la land if you think it isn't. I'm not saying it's right and I don't agree with the op.

Personally I think staff smoking outside any work place looks unprofessional. The staff of the Building Society oposite my office are not allowed to stand outside smoking - they have to go around the corner to smoke, shiver, and drink their Red Bull.

"Part of teaching is leading and setting an example and being a role model. Not every child has the luxury of wonderful role models at home. It is vital that a teacher prioritise their young pupils OVER their need for a puff."

I haven't read such a load of BOLLOCKS in a very long time.

There is nothing, nothing, in any job description or contract that I have ever had that has ever stipulated that I have to be a 'role' model.

In my own time and off the school premises I can (and will) do what I bloody well like (as log as it's legal of course!!)

I got pregnant before my husband and I married - was that being a poor role model?

One of my former colleagues left his wife for the (male) head of english? Was he a poor role model?

We are teachers, not paragons of fucking virtue.

i am a bit torn here as i had a similar problem with a group of teachers(4) smoking out side the school when i collected my children on their lunch break... but i did think i am being unreasonable as it is their dinner break too and they are not smoking on the school premises nor infront of it but around the side of the building that so happens to be the way I pass...

i dont think that we can dictate what a teacher can and cannot do outside of school or working hours...

(by the way i3/4 teachers were my childrens teachers /T.A's. but i explain to my children that it is choice but it has consequences( lost my father -who was a heavy smoker.

Luckily Spicemonster, the teachers at my DC's school wouldn't pore over their contracts to see whether or not they could legally get away with smoking outside the school, they just wouldn't want to.

They are smart enough to differentiate between smoking in a bar or at home and smoking two metres from the school and in full view of the pupils. That's not rocket science.

Spokette, do you actually disagree with the statement that teachers should prioritise their pupils above their urgent need for a nicotine fix outside the school gates as is the issue on this thread?

Cos if you think teachers should say 'sod the pupils I need a smoke right now' then that is truly a "sod the world, me and my needs first" attitude, which would be bad from anybody, but from a teacher it would be more depressing.

if the teachers wasnt in school grounds then it is their own buisness,
i work in a hospital and the staff are not allowed to smoke on the hospital premises,(it is a non smoking site) or even in their cars in the staff car park, and yet the general public stand outside the doors, with drips attached, in wheelchairs, huddled up smoking. its their choice i supose.

THe teachers can do nixers at a lap dancing club for all I care. The children would be unaware of that.

I am at the teachers on here who have said they don't see themselves as role models!

Just in it for the holidays then??? Christ.

Yeah, depressing isn't it? And they're outraged by the suggestion that they could wait five more minutes before sparking up.

I feel sorry for the single, unmarried teacher who turns up to work heavily pregnant to teach her brood.

Not only will she be unprofessional, she will be immoral and corrupting the young minds with her sordid lifestyle.

Heaven protect us from the self-appointed, sanctimonious, perfect guardians for our children's welfare.

awww

I miss the days when ALL the teachers smoked and their staff room was like a nicotine soaked dry ice machine

This thread is about smoking.

Heaven protect us from people too lazy and selfish to wait 2 minutes before sparking up in front of young children.

I wouldn't think anything of a teacher who was unmarried and pregnant. Wouldn't occur to me that she had a lifestyle. Anyway, that's a different discussion.

this one is about smoking. And much trouble is it really to NOT smoke in front of children?

I have worked in education and been a smoker, but I do realise that you are sending confusing messges to youngsters if they see you smoking when you are often spouting off about healthy living, so that's what I mean when I say it might seem a bit unprofessional...not that there is anything unprofessional about smoking per se - just that I would feel a bit weird about it in front of youngsters who 'looked up' to me.

But I don't think it kills them to face reality either! It's part of growing up to realise that normal people do mad things at times...even if they know it is likely to harm them.

Spokette - I think that's a very weak arguement, based on a big assumption that people in this day and age think pregnant and unmarried is wrong. In fact when that view was a common opinion, fags weren't thought to be that bad, times change.

Being single and pregnant isn't bad for your health or others around you is it? We are talking about something here that's likely to give you cancer if done long enough.

Seeing teachers smoking encourages children to take up the habit

To be clear, obviously out of work hours teachers are people with lives like anyone else. But whilst they are at work they are abosolutely role models!

Surely we want our kids to leave school equipped with the right skills and attitude to life? A teacher who sees nothing wrong with hanging around the gates smoking a fag like a teenager is sending out entirely the wrong message.

Great - now we're onto general teacher-bashing. Nice

are there really any good reasons not to smoke in front of children? they're not going to get lung cancer if a wispy bit of smoke drifts near them in the outside world are they?

it probably makes smoking terribly uncool and could be a good thing - at my private, pretty academic day school nearly all the teachers smoked but very few of us girls did

A lot of people over-complicating and over-analysing this issue. Other people getting so defensive!

It can be summed up as follows imo

If a teachers cares enough, they can easily wait 3 more mins for that fag, if they don't care enough about the impression they're setting, they won't.

And in an ideal world surely we'd all prefer our children's schools would be staffed by the former.

The End.

YANBU

We can not smoke outside my office building. People should be able to walk in and out of the building without passing smokers. Its company policy. Also it makes the company look bad because people who smoke these days just look a bit...thick, don't they? I am an ex-smoker and my main reason for giving up was not my health, but the fact that I knew i stank and looked like an idiot. Not a good role model at all and teachers ARE of course role models.

YABU totally and utterly!

People can smoke if they choose to, whether they are teacher, police officer or a banker. We thankfully have a reasonable amount of free will and choice in this country and smoking isn't illegal.

Do you really think your primary school child is going to think "I'm deffo gonna start smoking because Mrs XYZ does"?

I don't think so.

Teachers work bloody hard, maybe she didn't have the time to walk ten minutes away where no parents and pupils might be? Or maybe she didn't feel everyone would be so judgmental about a legal habit she has.

Liffey over-complicating and over-analysing this issue.

It can be summed up as follows imo

Teachers have the right to smoke when not at work

Teachers are not provided with anywhere "hidden" to smoke in typical state schools

It does not seem likely that primary school children do, in fact, emulate or wish to emulate their teachers when it comes to smoking

Why don't we all mind our own business and stop pillorying smoking teachers?

And in an ideal world I'd prefer my children's schools to be staffed by people who can teach and who like children. I could not give two shiny shites whether they smoke.

The End.

I'd rather my children started smoking than develop nasty judgmental attitudes, you know, if it had to be one stance or the other

at least you can get help from the NHS to stop smoking and you tend to know you are doing it and so on

examines inner self to test how true that is, feels about right

Can they not smoke in their holidays? They sure have enough of them

ChoChoSan - good point about guiding pupils to live healthily one minute then smoking in view of them the next. Wouldn't make sense.