By Jim Mimiaga

A request to allow tobacco use at Southwest Open School as a way to improve student safety was denied last month by the state Department of Education. Southwest Open is the first school ever in the state to apply for such a waiver.

The effort, says principal Jean Lovelace, was not to promote smoking, but to prevent students who are hooked from gathering off-campus to light up where school administrators and teachers have little or no control.

"We are concerned about our people standing out in the street and having to deal with weird people who are not students at the school," she said. "If we had a smoking section on campus, then we could eject non-students who may be causing problems, plus it would be safer than standing out on that dangerous road."

Lovelace said that she did not expect the variance to be granted but felt that she had to do something to try and improve safety for those students.

"As it is now, we have little or no control over the circumstances, and I am truthfully concerned about somebody coming by with a gun, especially in light of recent school-safety issues. In good conscience, I could not just say that they are fine out there standing in the street."

Currently smoking students at the alternative charter school gather on North Dolores Road, a gravel street near Highway 145 that at times sees heavy traffic. Some have complained to teachers of undesirables harassing them, or wanting to start trouble.

Once last year a person with a gun arrived looking for a particular student, Lovelace said.

At Montezuma-Cortez High School, student smokers have been nudged from a high-profile area in front of the Elmwood trailer park directly across the school, to a small curbside area on the southeast corner of Chestnut and Seventh streets. The goal, said Principal Mark Rappe, was to reduce conflicts there between Elmwood residents and student smokers loitering in front of driveways, and to reduce congestion and litter on Seventh Street.

"Thanks to efforts by our school resource officer, the kids migrate over there to smoke now, and are not standing in the middle of the street any more during heavy bus traffic. (Plus) it has made the school look better," Rappe said.

"Homeowner complaints and litter are the biggest problem we have seen as far as kids smoking right off campus. Since we nudged them from Seventh those complaints have diminished."

MCHS is a closed campus, except for 51 minutes during lunch, at which time some students step off school grounds to smoke. Use or possession of tobacco products on school grounds is strictly forbidden. Efforts to educate students about the hazards of tobacco use, such as heart disease and lung cancer, include lessons taught in mandatory health classes and promotion of smoking-cessation programs.

Tougher state laws passed in 1994 require public schools to be smoke-free, which prevents most schools from asking for the variance, Rappe said, although several schools have along the Front Range. That legislation has not accomplished the obvious need, though: Getting kids to quit the habit.

According to a recent statewide study cited by the Denver Post, 36 percent of Colorado teenagers smoke, an increase of more than 50 percent since 1988. Nationwide some 4.1 million kids between the ages of 12 and 17 smoke cigarettes.

Southwest Open is turning to student smokers themselves a lot more now to help solve the problem and is always encouraging them to quit. Curriculum is designed at the high school to inform students of the health dangers of smoking and tobacco use, Lovelace said.

Ideally, Southwest wants to become a tobacco-free school, with full cooperation from the student population.