Effective Date: April 19, 2017
Responsibility: Director of Education
POLICY
The Near North District School Board will provide learning and working environments, free from tobacco products (e.g., cigarettes, cigars, blunt wraps, chew, plug, snuff, snus, etc.) and tobacco like products and by-products (e.g., electronic cigarettes, cigars, pipes, vaping devices, cartridges of nicotine solutions, hookah, pipes or any other apparatus to smoke shisha or other plant matter that may or may not include, tobacco, etc.). Please refer to Table 1.
RATIONALE
The Near North District School Board has an interest to ensure that all students and their families, volunteers and staff have a safe and healthy learning and working environment. In accordance with the Smoke-Free Ontario Act (SFOA), the board recognizes that this environment is one that is free from the harmful effects of the use of tobacco products and tobacco-related accessories. Schools have the responsibility to provide supportive, healthy places for living, learning, and working that promote the mental, physical, social, and spiritual well-being of their students, staff members, and the community (Ontario Healthy Schools Coalition, 2010). Implementing a Tobacco-Free Environment guideline fits within the Comprehensive School Health (CSH) initiative, the Board’s commitment to safe and accepting schools and can:
- a) Prevent students from starting to use tobacco by limiting access and acceptability.
- b) Provide a safe, supportive, and healthy learning environment and workplace for students, staff and anyone using school or board facilities.
- c) Support students and staff to make healthy lifestyle choices.
- d) Support students and staff who are trying to quit using tobacco.
- e) Provide and promote positive tobacco-free role models.
- f) Reinforce school-based tobacco prevention education.
- g) Increase compliance with the SFOA.
1.0 PROCEDURE
1.1 The Near North District School Board will declare, establish and maintain a tobacco-free environment. This means that smoking and/or holding lighted tobacco products, as well as consuming or using any tobacco products, shisha or imitation tobacco products (including all forms of vaping, containing tobacco or not) is prohibited anywhere on board property, school board vehicles or in vehicles parked on board property at all times.
1.2 This procedure applies to all students, staff, trustees, parents, visitors, volunteers, community partners, facility renters, contractors and individuals on board property, in school board vehicles or in vehicles parked on board property, at all times.
1.3 This procedure applies during all school-sponsored or school-related events, and out-ofclassroom programs and activities approved by, or under the jurisdiction of the Near North District School Board.
1.4 In accordance with the SFOA, exceptions are made for the traditional use of tobacco for cultural or spiritual purposes and every effort will be made to accommodate the individual in an appropriately designated space (indoor or outdoor).
1.5 How the Smoke Free Ontario Act Affects Schools The SFOA Prohibits:
- a) Anyone from smoking / holding a lighted tobacco product anywhere on school property at any time including walking onto or off property with a lighted tobacco product and smoking in personal vehicles on school property.
- b) The sale or supply of a tobacco product to anyone under 19 years of age, regardless of the seller’s / supplier’s age. This includes the sale and free distribution of any tobacco product regardless of quantity (i.e. includes single denominations).
2.0 GUIDELINES
Prevention Education
2.1 The Near North District School Board recognizes that the best methods of prevention are well-developed, quality lifestyle education programs. The goals of lifestyle education are to help students, throughout their formal education, develop the skills that they need to make healthy choices and prevent problems related to the use of tobacco and tobacco like products and exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke. As such, educational programs regarding the use of tobacco and tobacco like products and its effects will be taught in accordance with the Ontario Health and Physical Education curriculum.
2.2 A summary of this policy will be included in all school handbooks and distributed annually to parents and students.
3.0 Enforcement
3.1 The Smoke Free Ontario Act (SFOA) was designed to protect the health of all Ontarians by banning smoking in all enclosed workplaces and enclosed public places in Ontario. The Act prohibits smoking or holding of a lit tobacco product in schools as defined by the Education Act and it is enforced by the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit.
3.2 A person found to be using tobacco products or tobacco-like products (including but not limited to those found in Table 1. below) on Board property is subject to disciplinary action: If a person is found smoking or holding lit tobacco products, The North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit shall enforce the Smoke Free Ontario Act (SFOA) including:
- issuing warnings, laying charges or issuing summons to persons who are found smoking or holding lit tobacco products on school property;
- notifying the school principal of offences that occur on school property beyond the school and/or work day; and
- referring offenders to cessation support within the school or community and/or providing them with educational materials.
The principal and/or designate shall enforce this Tobacco-Free Environment Policy which includes one or more of the following actions:
- issuing warnings to persons found to be using tobacco products or tobacco-like products on Board property;
- documenting any incident of policy violation;
- notifying the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit of offences that violate the Smoke Free Ontario Act so that enforcement of the Act can take place;
- reviewing consequences for repeat offenders, in accordance with Board Procedure, Student Discipline and Progressive Discipline for Employees, or with the Director of Education or designate; and
- referring offenders to cessation support within the school or community and/or providing them with educational materials.
4.1 An exception to this policy may be made for the traditional use of tobacco as an Indigenous cultural practice. The Near North District School Board recognizes that smudging is a part of the Indigenous traditional way of life and is, therefore, permitted on Board and school sites, in designated spaces, subject to proper safety measures.
The following outlines examples of common tobacco products and their accessories:
Prohibited Products:
Lighted Tobacco: including but not limited to cigarettes, pipes, cigars, cigarillos, blunt wraps, beedies
Accessories: lighters, matches, rolling papers, plastic/tin cigarette cases, cigarette holders
Smokeless Tobacco: including but not limited to chew, plug, snus, snuff
Accessories: spit, bottles, tins, tubs
Shisha: including but not limited to tobacco and/or herbal
Accessories: Waterpipe/hookah, pipes, apparatus, charcoal, mouthpiece, e-juice/eliquid, nicotine solutions.
Iimitation Tobacco: including but not limited to electronic smoking devices/vaping products i.e. cigarettes, cigars, pipes, water pipes/hookahs
Accessories: nicotine/non-nicotine cartridges, chargers, e-juice/e-liquid, nicotine solutions, smoking apparatus and components
5.0 Definitions:
Board Property includes school and Board buildings and all adjacent Board property, including playgrounds, parking lots, Board-owned vehicles, as well as school buses when being used to transport students to and from school and on school-authorized activities.
School Board Vehicles includes all vehicles either owned or leased by the board and vehicles operated for the board.
Tobacco Product means any product containing, made or derived from tobacco that is intended for human consumption, whether chewed, smoked, absorbed, dissolved, inhaled, snorted, sniffed or ingested by any other means. Common types of tobacco products include, but are not limited to, cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, blunt wraps, chew, plug, snuff and snus.
Imitation Tobacco Product includes any product that resembles any tobacco product, and / or is marketed or intended to be used as an alternative to tobacco use. These products can include electronic cigarettes, cigars, and pipes as well as cartridges and solutions, whether or not, they contain nicotine.
Most of these products are shaped to look like their conventional counterparts. They produce a vapour that resembles smoke and glow that resembles the tip of a cigarette or cigar. They consist of a batterypowered delivery system that vaporizes and delivers a liquid chemical mixture that may be composed of various amounts of nicotine, propylene glycol, and/or other chemicals. This does not include any product that is approved by Health Canada as a quit smoking aid.
Smudging – an Indigenous cultural practice that involves the burning of one of the four sacred medicines gathered from the earth: sweet grass, sage, cedar, and tobacco.
Tobacco-Related Accessory means any item that is used for the consumption of a tobacco product, including but not limited to, pipes, cigarette holders, lighters, matches, rolling papers, cigarette cases, spit bottles, tins, tubs, chargers, mouth pieces, charcoal, water pipes / hookahs, etc.
Tobacco-Free Environment (TFE) - An environment that is free from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke and free from the use of any tobacco product, imitation tobacco products or tobacco-related accessories.
