You walk to your car and you see a puff of grey smoke rise from nameless faces. The stick they hold between their fingers encases your car with its stench. Walking by, you hold your breath and pray you don’t smell like cigarettes when you get home. You get into your car and wait for them to leave and wonder why no one is stopping them.

Smoking in the parking lot before, during, and after school has become a problem that is beginning to affect a large portion of the student body.

Many students have asthma and the inhalation of second hand smoke can set off an attack. Smoking does not only harm the offender, but the innocent bystanders that have to be around it when walking out to their car.

Not all students who smoke are 18, so some minors are clearly breaking the law by the consumption of cigarettes.

As it’s been stated above smoking harms the offender and the innocent bystanders but it also hurts the schools image. The parking lot directly faces Bell Street and parents pick their kids up in that parking lot. When they see a large group of students smoking in the parking lot it gives Randall a bad name.

Those in opposition believe that students that are 18 have the right to smoke and if their younger friends make the wrong decision to do it with them then so be it. Change cannot be expected if the faculty remains stagnant. Patrols around the parking lot should be made and severe punishment because what they smoke isn’t always cigarettes. Posters should be made educating the students on the potential deadly effects cigarettes and other drugs can have.  Smoking is wrong no matter what the age and it harms a lot more than a student’s lungs.