School districts in Ohio, Mahoning Valley tighten smoking policies

By DENISE DICK

and CHRISTINE KEELING

news@vindy.com

For years, Mahoning Valley school districts have restricted smoking on school grounds, but now the state wants anti-smoking policies to become even stricter.

Last month, the state school board recommended that smoking be banned on all surrounding school property. Smoking inside school buildings is already prohibited by state law.

The latest recommendation from the state board means students wouldn’t be able to possess tobacco products, and school employees and other adults couldn’t use any such products.

Lock P. Beachum Sr., president of the Youngstown school board, has asked the board’s policy committee, chaired by board member Andrea Mahone, to study such a policy for the city schools.

“A lot of schools are doing this all around the country,” Beachum said.

The state’s recommendation isn’t mandated.

The Youngstown district’s policy adopted in 2004 prohibits tobacco use within enclosed facilities owned or leased by the board and in areas immediately adjacent to locations of entrances to such facilities. It also prohibits tobacco use in vehicles owned or operated by the board.

It does, however, allow the board to designate outdoor areas where smoking is allowed.

The policy being considered though, would eliminate those designated areas.

Austintown Superintendent Vince Colaluca said his school board voted to make its campus tobacco free as of June 1.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and at Vindy.com.