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Principal tackles school smoking
11.10.10
by Caoimhinn Barr, Inishowen Independent
AN Inishowen school principal has said he will do
everything in his power to weed out students who
continue to flout the smoking ban.
Carndonagh Community School headmaster Paul
Fiorentini was reacting this week to a claim by a
young pupil, who said she was often too ‘intimated
and disgusted’ to use the campus toilets because of
older students smoking.
The 14-year old student said she only used the
‘disgusting’ school toilets as an absolute last
resort.
“The toilets are disgusting; there is so much
smoking going on and there are often cigarette butts
in the toilet bowl. A lot of days I wait to use the
toilet at home,” she said.
The girl said she was too afraid to tell any of her
class teachers.
“I wouldn’t dare tell anyone because the older girls
who are smoking give you dirty looks as if to say -
‘If you tell, you are dead’. They take over the
cubicles for ages and nobody is able to use the
toilet,” she added. |
Mr Fiorentini, who
immediately checked all the main toilets when he
heard the news yesterday, said the school had a
strong anti-smoking programme.
“We have an anti-smoking policy in place in the
school and we will continue to enforce it as rigidly
as possible but we can’t be everywhere at all times.
I don’t think we have a severe problem with smoking.
I think smoking in the toilets is a sporadic issue,
which we are continuing to counteract,” he said.
“I inspected the main toilets in the school this
afternoon and found no evidence of smoking at all
but that doesn’t mean that certain students won’t
chance their arm from time to time. |
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Paul Fiorentini |
Another teacher
searched the toilets up to fifteen times [yesterday]
and also didn’t uncover any obvious evidence of
smoking.”
Under the Public Health Tobacco Act, any person
found guilty of breaching the ban on smoking in the
workplace, including schools, may be subject to a
fine of up to €3,000. The owner, manager or person
in charge of the workplace is legally responsible
for ensuring that the ban is complied with. |
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