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High school students are demanding they receive a daily smoke break, but education officials are not so enthused with the idea for obvious reasons.
It may sound like a crazy request in the first place, but it’s also getting rather out of control. Students at Roseville Secondary School in Umzinto, South Africa are adamant about their demands.
The pupils assert that they require time to smoke in a designated area on the school grounds between 8 and 9 am. Apparently, they also had additional grievances with school administrators that they’ve raised as well.
Though students refused to attend classes in protest last week, the school says they are not backing down.
“We are not going to be held to ransom by kids,” said Kwazi Mthethwa, a provincial education spokesperson. She told TimesLIVE that the students “are supposed to be in class learning,” adding that the school has no intention of negotiating with them.
Mthethwa went on to say that the students can’t make demands as to how the department is run.
“We are not going to allow this kind of behavior to flourish at schools,” she said.
According to Mthethwa, the education department wants students to lead healthy lives. Smoking, obviously, does not fit into that picture.
It’s clear they don’t intentionally promote this sort of behavior, though while they “stand firm against” it, it has apparently become troublesome.
A local news source reported that the students made multiple videos to deliver their demands. One even showed a student smoking in a teachers’ staff room.
The protests even led to school closure, resulting in two missed exams. And on Sunday, parents were called in to address the matter as well.
“Smoking under the age of 18 is illegal,” said KZN Parents’ Association chairperson Vee Gani. “This is a criminal offense.”
Gani said the students appear to have a “sense of entitlement,” in that they feel they can make these demands.
“This,” he said, “needs to stop.”
Though this particular scenario is playing out on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast, it still hits close to home.
Data from 2017-2018 shows that vape use among teens is on the rise in the U.S. While the legal age to obtain a vape pen is 18, that hasn’t stopped 38% of high schoolers from doing so. Additionally, 13% of middle schoolers also say they’ve tried vaping.
Many believe it to be a safer option than smoking, but the risks still pose cause for concern. In fact, recent reports show several cases of severe lung damage in teens.
With this in mind, it’s clear that it’s important to talk to kids about the dangers of both smoking and vaping.
