Schools

MHS Principal Earle: No Smoking On Or Even Near Campus

Residents complain that students are smoking, cursing, and trashing properties.

 

Montclair High School Principal James Earle has a mission: He's determined to prevent students from smoking on campus—and from smoking near the campus as well.

"What we're trying to do is be preventive and to also send a message out that these kinds of actions are not conducive to the atmosphere of the school," he told Montclair Patch. "We need to send a message that smoking will not be tolerated ... not only on campus—where it's already prohibited—but not even near the campus."

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Earle, who's been the school's principal for three years, said he's received a disturbingly high number of calls from parents, neighbors, and passers-by reporting students who are smoking, cursing, and leaving cigarette butts and ashes on surrounding properties.

He said he wants to implement a new rule by the fall—if not before—that goes after any student creating a "disruption."

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"A disruption could take many forms," he said, pointing out that it could mean a student who is noisy, cursing, littering, or gathered as part of an unruly crowd in front of someone's home.

"We need to work with the school board and with members of the community to define what a disruption is as it pertains to smoking or crowding or littering," he said. "We need to make a new rule to get a handle on this."

Earle said he has been walking across campus each morning, seeking out smokers. In the fall, he wants stepped-up patrols of the area around the school.

"In about three years I can count on one hand the number of times I've smelled smoke in a bathroom because we have an open-campus policy and the kids know they can smoke off campus," he said. "They respect the building but they'll walk right outside the steps and they'll start smoking and everything else. We want to send a message to the community that we need their help in fighting back against this."

Earle said that, of course, some students continue to find "pockets" of space on the spacious campus in which to smoke even though it's officially prohibited.

"We always find them but then they just move on and go off campus and find somewhere else to smoke," he said. "We want something on the books so that there can be consequences to these actions."

Earle said that he's been taking down the names of students he catches smoking and then calling their parents.

"We don't care if they are 18 or not," he said.

Earle said that students are not only hurting their health but they are tarnishing the image of the high school in the eyes of the community—a community that includes Renaissance Middle School just across the street.

"No one wants this kind of thing in their yards," he said. "If I can see you smoking 50 yards down the street, I'm going to come down and take names.

"I just want these students to understand this," he added.

In the end, Earle said the school must be thought of as a sacred space.

"We do care about how we look," he said. "I do believe we can put something in our rule books that will have consequences. If you are caught smoking near campus, there will be consequences.

"We need parents to know that if they see someone smoking, we want to know about it," he said. "A lot of times parents are our eyes and ears. This is going to take a large community effort."

This isn't the first time Earle has cracked down on students' behavior.

In late 2010, he sent out a note to parents warning them that students must use sidewalks when going to and from the school, especially during lunch periods.

In addition to being a violation punishable by fine, walking on busy streets, especially James Street, is dangerous to both pedestrians and drivers alike.

What do you think of the behavior of some high school students? Let us know in the comments section below.


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