Did your high school have a morning smoke break?

[TrixieB]

In one high school I attended (early 80's) we had a morning smoke break of 20 minutes between 2nd & 3rd period. A high school I attended in a different district didn't have a smoke break.

 

What about your high school?

Edited October 7, 2011 by TrixieB

[DB in NJ]

No. The all-girls Catholic high school I went to in Philly did NOT have a smoke break (graduated in '82).

 

Never heard of such a thing!! LOL

Edited October 7, 2011 by DB in NJ

[KristinaBreece]

Umm... My mom got suspended in the '80s for taking a smoke break. But I don't think that's what you meant. lol

 

I've never heard of a high school with smoke breaks.

[Rhonda in TX]

In one high school I attended (early 80's) we had a morning smoke break of 20 minutes between 2nd & 3rd period. A high school I attended in a different district didn't have a smoke break.

 

What about your high school?

 

For the students? I've never heard of such a thing!

[Just Kate]

I had no idea that smoke breaks ever existed in schools! Interesting...

[lionfamily1999]

When my sister was in high school (87-91) they stopped having smoke breaks. When my mom was in school (60sish) they had them.

[In2why]

Our High School had a student smoking room, and your parents had to sign a permission slip. I graduated in 86.

[TrixieB]

For the students? I've never heard of such a thing!

Well, I suppose the teachers must have taken advantage of it too... so maybe it wasn't just for the students. I don't remember seeing any teachers smoking outside the building so I guess they went somewhere special. :tongue_smilie: One of those secret teachers-only places.

 

Not being a smoker myself, I figured the urge must strike every 2 hours. Cigarette; 1st & 2nd period; cigarette; 3rd & 4th period; lunchtime cigarette; 5th & 6th period; we're outta here!

[DawnM]

Let's see.....missionary kid boarding school in the middle of Africa....NOPE, no smoke break. :D We had a chai break around 10am after chapel, does that count?

[DarlaS]

In one high school I attended (early 80's) we had a morning smoke break of 20 minutes between 2nd & 3rd period. A high school I attended in a different district didn't have a smoke break.

 

What about your high school?

 

I'm guessing you won't get an (American) poll responders who say they had a smoke break after the 80's. Selling cigs to under 18's became illegal around that time.

[Cindyg]

One would have been EXPELLED for smoking OFF CAMPUS at my high school (1979).

 

When I taught (1986), kids were allowed to smoke "out back." I don't believe they got a "break" as in time out of class. This was on their own time. It did require a parent's note.

[RebeccaS]

No smoke breaks-never heard of it before tonight! I graduated in '96.

 

Dh graduated in '85. He says there were smoke breaks at his school, but parents had to send a permission slip.

[littlebug42]

Not an actual smoke break but there was a smoking section outdoors behind the cafeteria. You could go out to smoke during your lunch period. I graduated in 1989 and they were starting to phase this out a grade at a time, starting with 9th grade that year.

[mytwomonkeys]

i graduated in 1989. we had a designated smoking area. you either had to be 18 or have a parent's note to smoke there. everyone else smoked in the D hall bathroom with someone on the lookout, lol. we also had coke machines and snack machines. they served chocolate milkshakes for lunch. i wonder if they still have those?

[Julie Smith]

Graduated in the 90s but we had a smoking room. Okay, it was a stairwell but everyone including teachers knew only smokers went to that stairwell. Even some teachers who smoked went to that stairwell during winter. Smoke alarms in that area where always broken. Or at least they had to be , because you could see the smoke when passing that stairwell during winter.

[JennyD]

No (graduated in 1990) but when I went off to college the top floor of the LIBRARY (!) was reserved for smokers. I believe that had ended by the time I graduated, though.

[Tap]

I say 80s and yes, but it was because I went and smoked at our 10 minute 'nutrition' break in the morning. We did have a 'smoke line' which was an area we were allowed to smoke at unharrassed by teachers. It was against the law for us to smoke at the time, but allowed.

[Ellie]

Four high schools in three different states--definitely NO smoking break.

[JenneinCA]

We did have a 10 minute break between second and third periods. It was called a snack break, but I didn't know anyone who smoked during it.

 

I graduated from high school in 1989.

[AndyJoy]

I graduated in 2000, and there was (predictably) no smoking break.

 

They did, however, increase the passing period from 4 to 7 minutes that year so that made the smokers happy. You couldn't smoke on school grounds, of course, so about 20 students would cross the street, stand in a circle, and pass 4 cigarettes around the circle. As if smoking wasn't gross enough--sharing your germs with 19 other random teenagers!?!? *puke*

[oldskool]

Up until about '86 our high school had an actual smoking lounge. :tongue_smilie:

 

Lesley

[NittanyJen]

We had what was officially called 10:10 break. You were permitted to use that time (and it was implemented for this purpose) to smoke in the smoking lounge, in the senior lounge, or outdoor lounge. You could also smoke during lunchtime in those locations-- no hall pass needed. I believe it was illegal to sell cigarettes to under18 by my time through (graduated in late '80's) but it was entrenched tradition by then, and it was not illegal to smoke; just to purchase.

 

We finally got a clued in principal my senior year who phased out the practice fairly quickly. As a non-smoker, I was not sad to see it go after watching so many friends get hooked by an essentially school-sanctioned activity.

[swellmomma]

We did not have a set smoke break but we did have smoking doors. In grade 10 you could still smoke inside the high school if you used this one foyer area down by the staff parking lot. In grade 11 they made it so that you had to smoke outside but right at that same door. It didn't matter to the teachers if you were smoking cigarettes or weed as long as you were in the designated area. In grade 12 the city put a no-smoking bylaw in effect and then you had to go all the way across the street to smoke. I was(and still am) a non-smoker but I hung out with those smoking cigarettes and other things so I spent a lot of time in those areas. I graduated in 1995, so 1992-1993 school year was smoking inside, 1993-1994 school year was outside, 1994-1995 school year was across the street. We have a break between classes that many used as a smoke break but it was not designed to be one, they still have the same break now, it's just always been a 15 minute break between periods 2 and 3.

[MrsBasil]

I graduated in 2000. No smoke break, no smoking lounge, and you faced disciplinary action for smoking on school grounds if you were a student.

 

This stopped no one from smoking during the day, you could stand right outside school grounds by walking across the football field, go through a gate and stand on the other side of a fence that wasn't school property. I do believe they took the gate away after Columbine though. Not sure, was never a smoker.

 

I have a friend who graduated from high school in 86 or 87 and his school had an indoor smoking lounge. I can't even imagine. :tongue_smilie:

[kalanamak]

No smoke break, but a smoking lounge to keep kids from smoking in the parking lot. It was inhabited by "the hoods". I know "the jocks" (girls who hung on the arms of the jocks, at least), "the freaks" and "the theater people" all smoked, too, but I never saw them in the smoking lounge. I don't know if "the dorks", "the retards", or "the pocket protector types" smoked or not. Also, the smoking lounge was all white. AFAIR, "the freaks" were either "the dopers", who skipped class and drove around and smoked anything and everything, or "the hippies"(which we weren't, BTW, but just professor's kids.) I didn't smoke but "the hippies" would go next door to the old cemetery, climb the trees and smoke up there.

 

I have no idea what the slang terms nowadays are, but those were the ones I had to listen to.

[elegantlion]

There was a courtyard you could smoke it. I'm not sure if it was allowed or just ignored. There was no break, just lunch time. It was mostly "the freaks" who smoked out there. Freaks were sort of the midwest non-surfing version of Spicoli.

 

I never used it, we'd smoke after school or sometimes go to the car on lunch.

[Melissa in Australia]

no.

When I was in primary school ( late 70's early 80's) the teachers smoked in the classroom, right over the students.

There was a no smoking for students rule in high school. Many students did , way down the end of the oval.

Now days teachers are not even allowed to smoke on school grounds. in fact just about all workplaces in Australia are no-smoking areas.

[nono]

No. The all-girls Catholic high school I went to in Philly did NOT have a smoke break (graduated in '82).

 

Never heard of such a thing!! LOL

 

Hey DB, we completely match up, well except we had boys. :tongue_smilie: I might know the answer to this one...if the priest had his facts straight. Some diocesan high schools (and I believe public schools in the Phila. area) did have smoking lounges (if not a break time built into everyone's schedule) and it had to do with when the schools were built. So there must have been a law invoked with a "grandfather clause" for existing smoking lounges. Alas, our school was too young, so we didn't have smoking during the day. But at our monthly school dances on school property, we could smoke.

[Caroline]

I graduated in '88. The first year I was in high school we had a smoking area out by the dumpsters. You had to be 18 and have a permission slip to go in there.

 

We had a 15 minute break between first and second periods to serve breakfast. A large fraction of our school was on free/reduced lunch which means free/reduced breakfast, too. The cafeteria could not feed everyone before school, so we had a break to facilitate kids getting food into their bodies.

[Rhonda in TX]

Well, I suppose the teachers must have taken advantage of it too... so maybe it wasn't just for the students. I don't remember seeing any teachers smoking outside the building so I guess they went somewhere special. :tongue_smilie: One of those secret teachers-only places.

 

Not being a smoker myself, I figured the urge must strike every 2 hours. Cigarette; 1st & 2nd period; cigarette; 3rd & 4th period; lunchtime cigarette; 5th & 6th period; we're outta here!

 

I graduated in '85 and I'm pretty sure the teachers were smoking in the teacher's lounge.

[RegularMom]

I graduated in 1987. We didn't have an "official" smoke break time, but there was a public smoking area for students, separate from faculty. (Faculty could not smoke in front of students. I think they had an indoor smoking area.)

 

We often ducked into the smoking area between classes or during free periods to smoke. Cigarette sales to minors was common back then, and it was considered normal for a certain percentage of high school students to be smokers.

 

It was during my high school years that the laws and regulations regarding cigarettes began to change. In the four years I was there, our smoking area went from being a lovely grassy area with trees and benches outside the library to a small corner of blacktop behind the gym. Starting in my senior year, parental permission slips were required to smoke at school.

[LaxMom]

I graduated in '89 and we didn't have a smoke break. We did have a smoking area, though. It was the air shaft in the center of the building and had a glass wall from the cafeteria. There was a big tree in the middle, as if they'd built the school around it... It was weird and fish bowl feeling, even from inside the cafeteria. I don't recall ever seeing anyone out there. Ever. People just went out front.

[Crimson Wife]

We had a snack break from 9:50 to 10:00 that might originally have been a smoke break but by the time I went through (graduated '95) smoking was banned for the students on-campus.

[higginszoo]

Officially? No. By the time I graduated, I think we were technically a smoke-free campus. In practice, I'm sure there were certain students and faculty that used the fine arts period mid-morning for just that.

 

When I went to ps summer school between junior and senior years, they DID have a smoke break. Turns out I was probably one of the only non-smokers in the group, but I guess I got my share second-hand. The irony was I was there to take health/PE (kept moving back between two states with different graduation requirements). It WAS weird to be near the top of the class in PE though. I never had had that experience before.

[lmrich]

I grew up in NC and there was a smoke break and a smoker's section. We even included it in the yearbook. I graduated in 1988, and we all knew it was wrong then. During smoke break we just had extra time to get to class and chat so we loved it.

[mcconnellboys]

I graduated in the 1970's and we had a break. The smokers used it for smoking and others just socialized. They didn't specifically call it a "smoking" break, but they didn't disallow the kids (even those under age 16) the right to smoke. They did make them all gather in a smoking area, outside. It was a sort of courtyard next to our cafeteria that had a few picnic tables in it.

[EKS]

We had something called "nutrition" which was a mid morning break. Many of er...us...smoked during that time, but we had to do it off campus, so we walked a block or so away.

[TravelingChris]

No, I graduated in 1981 so I was also in school in the 70's. This is for two school districts. Actually, neither did dh's so now I know about three.

 

Where were the schools with smoking breaks?

 

The schools without were suburban high schools in Eastern large metropolitan areas.

[Jackie in NE]

I graduated in 1980 from a public high school in California, and yes, we had a smoking break, and a designated smoking area. It was a covered outside area. If I remember correctly, the administration established the smoking area and smoking break in response to complaints about the bathrooms always being full of smoke. At the time I thought it was great. Freedom for teens and all that. But looking back.... What were they thinking?!

[Cinder]

No smoke break at my high school. I graduated early 80's from a private high school in HI. Of course, it doesn't mean there wasn't smoking. There was a particular bathroom the girls congregated in to smoke. And a story went around that one of the counselors, when he encountered a bunch of boys smoking pot (we had a lot of small, wooded areas on campus), told them they ought to smoke downwind of the office if they didn't want to get caught.

 

I had actually never heard of a school having smoke breaks until I read this thread.

[Parrothead]

No, no break. There was a designated area but between 9th and 10th grade it was decided no smoking on campus. This was the early 80s.

[Sahamamama]

We had smoking allowed between all classes in the courtyard. The school was shaped like a U, and students either had to go through the courtyard to get from one end of the U to the other OR go all the way around. It was so annoying, since I never smoked, hated smoke, and hated smelling like smoke just from walking through it.

 

This was in New Jersey, and I graduated in 198.... um, 5? I think? :confused: Yup, 1985. I just had to check. :glare:

 

I also remember going to the teachers' lounge to deliver messages and the room was FILLED with thick cigarette smoke. Imagine my SHOCK when I walked in and saw one of the HEALTH teachers smoking, just puffing away. This, after the "don't smoke" lecture.

[SweetMissMagnolia]

80s gal here...I didn't smoke (still don't)---but our school had a designated area where you could smoke-but you had to have a note from parents LOL.....

[Lawana]

The public high school I graduated from in 1977 had an open campus with flexible scheduling--not unlike college--so no periods. As such, there was only one "home room" time during which everyone was assigned a class. No official pass times, no lunch times. Those inclined to smoke could do so at any time. No officially designated smoking area, but an outside covered stairwell functioned as such. Indoor smoking was prohibited and violators disciplined.

[Mommyfaithe]

We did have a smoke break....and the security guard sold nickel bags....serious....

Faithe

[QueenCat]

No smoke break but there was a smoking area students could use during lunch. Early 1980s.

[KristinaBreece]

There was a courtyard you could smoke it. I'm not sure if it was allowed or just ignored. There was no break, just lunch time. It was mostly "the freaks" who smoked out there. Freaks were sort of the midwest non-surfing version of Spicoli.

 

I never used it, we'd smoke after school or sometimes go to the car on lunch.

 

At my high school, we called them hippies... lol! I think the funnest thing about this thread has been reading the different names different people had for different cliques.

 

no.

When I was in primary school ( late 70's early 80's) the teachers smoked in the classroom, right over the students.

There was a no smoking for students rule in high school. Many students did , way down the end of the oval.

Now days teachers are not even allowed to smoke on school grounds. in fact just about all workplaces in Australia are no-smoking areas.

 

THAT must be why there were huge "NO SMOKING" signs painted on the walls throughout my elementary school! I started K in 1990, and we were so flooded with the "DON'T SMOKE!!!" from the very beginning of school that I wondered why in the world they would need to specify that schools were smoke-free.

[clementine]

We had a 15 minute break, but it wasn't offically for a smoke break. Those that smoked gathered at a certain place outside - those that didn't hung out wherever & talked.

[dancer67]

I graduated in 1985, and yes we had a deignated courtyard. We actually had two smoke breaks. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. The catch? You had to have a signed permissions slip AND a phone call from the parents giving you permission to use it.

[Matryoshka]

My Catholic high school (graduated '82) did have a designated smoking area outside in the back courtyard.

 

I don't remember there being a smoking break time - but then I never smoked.

 

Not quite related - but as an adult I had a coworker who was miffed that the smokers all got to take smoking breaks multiple times a day, whereas non-smokers were allowed no such break times - she used to take a book and go hang out with them (apparently the second hand smoke bothered her less than the fairness issue :tongue_smilie:).