Matches ban urged for teen smokers
New Berlin plan would add to school penalty on having lights for smokes
By CORISSA JANSEN
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: Oct. 11, 2000
Students who light up in New Berlin schools would have to cough up a $60 forfeiture if they're caught with matches or a lighter under a proposed city ordinance.
Though state laws already prohibit minors from smoking or using tobacco products, Mayor James Gatzke said the proposed additional city penalty is a way to add weight to existing school punishment, such as detentions or suspensions, for possessing ignition devices.
The penalties could help snuff out the problem of smoking in schools altogether, Gatzke said.
"It at least eliminates the likelihood that they're going to smoke at school," he said. "And I would hope the kids would then see the error of their ways."
The possible ban on ignition devices was proposed by Common Council President Liz Kaminski, who said it's often difficult to catch students in the act of smoking because cigarettes are easily disposable.
"And you cannot invade the student's privacy by looking over or under a bathroom stall," Kaminski said in her proposal, which the Common Council approved in concept by a 6-1 vote.
Kaminski said students will often get cigarettes from classmates but will often carry matches or a lighter with them.
Without a city ordinance prohibiting the possession of ignition devices, the students have been only penalized for breaking school rules, said New Berlin police Lt. David Dunn.
"We think it's a great idea," Dunn said. "There is a problem with kids bringing these things in for whatever reason and this adds a little bit more consequence."
The ordinance is modeled after a similar measure on the books in South Milwaukee, which prohibits minors from possessing ignition devices. Kaminski's plan is limited to the schools.
Tickets could be issued by the schools' police liaison officers, or school administrators could record the information and pass it along to the Police Department if the liaison officers are not on campus.
Police say that type of ordinance appears to be rare. Both Muskego and Waukesha do not have an ordinance banning the possession of ignition devices.
Muskego's senior police liaison officer, Gary Mrotek, said in nine years working in the schools he has never heard of such an ordinance.
"But it's not a bad idea," he said. "Frequently kids will have a lighter in their pockets and there's no legitimate reason to have it."
Mrotek said Muskego school officials confiscate lighters and parents can later pick it up for their child - an option that's never been used.
Waukesha police Lt. William H. Graham Jr. said that type of ordinance could be valuable in light of an incident at Waukesha South High School on Monday in which a 16-year-old student started a wastebasket on fire in a bathroom.
"Depending on the amount of damage, that could be an arson charge," Graham said. "This type of thing may be a reason why they're doing this."
Kaminski said she was also concerned about ignition devices being used to light rolls of toilet paper on fire or burn signs or words into bathroom stalls or walls.
"It also becomes a concern for other students who choose not to smoke but must endure the smoke when they enter a restroom within the school," she said.
Kaminski, who got the idea for the ordinance from a retired New Berlin teacher, said school rules regulating the possession of ignition devices are "usually ineffective."
"The thought is that hitting them monetarily is a more persuasive (deterrent)," Kaminski said.
Although he said he supports the ordinance, Eisenhower High School Principal Ted Oertel said he believes an increased educational emphasis on the negative effects of smoking has already decreased the smoking problem at the school.
"But when you have the added measure of a citation, it just makes it more meaningful with regard to having students think before they act," Oertel said.
Kaminski said City Attorney Paul Reilly still has to draft the ordinance, and the council may ask the city's Youth Advisory Board for input before enactment.
The Common Council created that panel of teens earlier this year to discuss issues concerning the city's young people and to offer recommendations to city government.
"We would like to get some input from people in the age group that would be affected by it," Kaminski said.
A new Teen Court being established by the Police Department could also be an option the offender could choose in lieu of a citation, Kaminski said.
The Teen Court, which uses teenagers in the roles of prosecutors, defense attorneys, bailiffs and court reporters, was designed to increase accountability among youths who commit minor offenses while relieving strain on the city's Municipal Court.
| "It at least eliminates the likelihood that they're going to smoke at school. And I would hope the kids would then see the error of their ways." |
| "The thought is that hitting them monetarily is a more persuasive (deterrent)." - Liz Kaminski, Common Council president |
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Oct. 12, 2000.
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