Photograph by George Sakkestad
Homestead High School students Jasmin Bacha and Michelle Doggett-Moffett light up smokes during lunch time along Homestead Road, just a few feet from the student parking lot.
By KATHERINE PETERSEN
Sunnyvale police have cited 60 students for smoking or possessing tobacco during the past month.
The beefed-up enforcement of smoking laws began as part of a program started March 1, geared toward educating kids about the dangers of this habit.
State law changed in January, making possession by minors of tobacco products of any kind--including cigarettes, rolling papers, pipes and chewing tobacco--an arrestable offense, said Sunnyvale Public Safety Officer Steve Swenson.
The department started the Tobacco Abatement Program at Fremont and Homestead high schools and plans to expand it soon throughout the city, Swenson said.
"The best place to target teenage smokers is in high schools. That's where we find the greatest possession," Swenson said.
Several Homestead students who smoke said the legal consequences don't make them want to kick the habit.
"I only worry about it if I see a cop. Otherwise, I don't care and it [the program] doesn't stop me from smoking," said Dimitra, a junior.
"I don't really worry about it because in my experience, the cops don't really do anything." said Mike, a sophomore.
Officers warned students about the new project by handing out fliers for three weeks prior to enforcing the new law, Swenson said. The average age of students Swenson has caught smoking or possessing tobacco products is 14. The youngest was 12. So far more than 60 students have been cited.
"We could do more except we haven't had the time to do the enforcement," he said.
Kids caught for the first time are asked to attend a five-hour class taught by the American Lung Association, while their parents are invited to their own 1 1/2-hour class, Swenson said.
"If they attend, then the citations are diverted and don't go into the criminal system," Swenson said. "The whole focus of this is educational, not punitive. We're trying to get the kids to stop smoking and chewing, not put them in jail."
If kids don't attend the class or are caught a second time, the punishment increases to a $218 fine and/or 30 hours of community service, Swenson said.
Some kids are scared by the fine, and others are afraid of police notifying their parents.
"I worry about getting the fine only because I worry about the parental consequences of it," said Melissa, a sophomore.
While the new program may take time to impact kids, the public safety department has seen an increase in the number of merchants not selling cigarettes to kids, Swenson said. The department has conducted sting operations with Sunnyvale retailers for the past couple years and the last one turned up no offenders.
"The last time I took a [high school girl] to 15 merchants, and not one of them sold to her," he said.
But merchants can't stop 18-year-olds from buying cigarettes and giving them to friends, Swenson said.
Tania Khadder contributed to this story.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, April 9, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.