Franklin County Public Schools is going to a zero tolerance tobacco policy next month, and violators could face discipline. The policy applies to staff, students and visitors on all Franklin County Public Schools property – buildings, surrounding grounds, parking lots and athletic facilities – 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
It’s, as the new slogan goes, “Everybody, all the time, everywhere.”
Off-campus events like field trips, away games and school dances must also be tobacco free. Employees won’t be able to smoke Kiss in district-owned vehicles, or in their personal vehicles when parked on FCPS property.
The Franklin County Board of Education gave final approval to the policy Monday, and it will go into effect July 11.
“We have students with asthma and allergies,” Director of Pupil Personnel Deborah Wigginton told The State Journal Wednesday. “Health is always a concern for our staff and our students.”
According to the 2017 Kentucky Incentives for Prevention survey, 38 percent of high school seniors in Franklin County reported having smoked cigarettes in the last year, and 22 percent had used smokeless tobacco.
About 26 percent of Franklin County adults smoke, according to recent Kentucky county health rankings.
“Obviously we’re ecstatic,” Franklin County Health Department Director Paula Alexander said. “It’s a very progressive public health move on the part of the schools.”
Frankfort Independent Schools has been tobacco free for the last four years, but other neighboring school districts in Anderson, Henry, Owen, Scott, Shelby and Woodford counties are not.
All six of those districts prohibit tobacco use for students but allow adult employees and visitors to smoke outside in designated areas – the same as Franklin County’s old policy.
Wigginton says Central Office and several schools had designated smoking areas outside for staff and visitors.
She doesn’t know how many FCPS employees smoke, but believes there are smokers on every campus. Some of them now smoke inside their vehicles, but that will have to stop, she says.
“You’ll just have to go off campus, if you have the ability to do that,” she said. “Our hope is that you will do the smoking cessation program.”
Grants from the Franklin County Agency for Substance Abuse Policy, the Franklin County Health Department and the University of Kentucky will fund implementation of the new policy.
That includes $5,100 toward signs, mailings to staff and other promotional materials and $3,500 for smoking cessation classes for employees who want to quit.
The 13-week Cooper-Clayton program and nicotine replacement therapy will be provided free of charge for about 30 employees. Wigginton, a former smoker, is a graduate of the program developed by the University of Kentucky.
“For me, it’s been very successful,” she said.
Employees who continue to use tobacco on school property will face disciplinary action, including verbal warnings, written reprimands, suspension and termination.
The penalties won’t be as stiff for visitors to schools and athletic facilities. FCPS employees will hand a business-sized card detailing the new policy to visitors seen smoking at sporting events or in their cars as they wait to pick their kids up from school.
“That’s a concern because that’s your car, I understand that,” she said. “But we are not attempting to be confrontational … we’re not the cigarette police.”
If a visitor repeatedly refuses to stop smoking, he or she could be asked to leave the property, and law enforcement may be called if the person doesn’t comply.
Wigginton is a member of several committees at the Franklin County Health Department, and she mentioned she’d like to see the policy changed.
She was worried about the health of students and staff, and had heard complaints from students about tobacco use on campus.
“I was just kind of talking, as an idea, but the timing – and the funding – worked out,” she said.
“Without the funding, I don’t think we would have had the ability to do this. It was an opportunity that we could not pass up.”
The issue now is getting the word out to the public, Wigginton said. Signs will be hung at schools, and she hopes to notify residents through local media.
Superintendent Harrie Buecker will send a letter and brochure to all employees this summer, she said, and announcers will remind spectators at the start of sporting events.
