Smoking Penalty Eased For Huron High School

An easing in the penalty for being caught smoking on Huron High School property was approved last night by the Ann Arbor Board of Education. Under the new experimental policy, students eaught smoking on school grounds will be sent to an anti-smoking clinic for the first offense. For the second offense, a three-day suspension will be combined with the clinic. This is a compromise suggested by School Supt. W. Scott Westerman. The Huron High Student Council proposed last week that compulsory antismoking clinics be the penalty for all offenses - first, second or third, with no more suspensions. The present smoking policy at all óther Ann Arbor schools is a one-day suspension for the first offense, a three-day suspension for the second offense, and a penalty as recommened by a faculty committee and the principal for a third offense. The new policy for Huron High was passed by an 8-1 vote. Voting against any easing of the smoking ban was Trustee Ted Heusel. Heusel argued that the suspensions should not be done away with "just because it's hard to enforce the law." He was referring to a 1915 state law which prohibits persons under the age of 21 from smoking on public land or in public buildings. "That's the basic problem today," Heusel charged. We're always afraid to enforce something." He added that he could not vote for a change in policy because of the "overwhelming h e a 1 1 h evidence" that smoking is a health hazard. Trustee Cecil W. Warner said the trustees must uphold the state law, whether it is outdated or not, and then work for a change in thé law. Last fall, the board sent a resolution to the Michigan Association of School Boards urging that group to work for a change in the smoking law. Trustee Richard M. Wood, a firm supporter of the student proposal, said no one was condoning smoking. But he argued that no organization in the state, including the state pólice, tried to enforce the law. "The board must look realistically at what it can and cannot do," he declared. Trustee Henry Johnson suggested that ash trys or ash cans lat least be placed in the school lavatories. "They are smoking there, gentlemen, and no smoking rule is going to stop it," he I said.