SOUTHWORDS
April 1980
Smokers ruin privacy
by Katie R.
"Believe me," said Girls' Physical Education Department head Katherine Pierce. "We didn't want to do it."
"Believe us," yelled the girls in the locker room. "We didn't want them off either."
Then why were the stall doors in the girls' locker room taken off?
"There did not seem to be any alternative. We tried to curb the problem--smoking in the stalls--by cutting windows in the doors. But that didn't work. We tried to have PE teachers monitor the locker room, but the girls aren't that dumb. They would have someone be 'lookout', watching for teachers. They were too hard to catch," said Ms. Pierce.
Searching for a solution, Ms. Pierce contacted other schools to find out what they had done to solve the problem. Every school she talked to had the same answer. They had removed the doors from the stalls.
"We didn't want to do this--it was the last resort. Girls were constantly complaining to me about how many girls were smoking in the stalls, no one was able to use them. Girls were changing their clothes in the stalls. I asked the girls if they knew the names of the girls who were smoking; if they did, they wouldn't say. How can we catch the smokers if we don't know who they are? If the girls want to help the situation, they should report anyone who is smoking."
One junior commented, "It always seems that the good have to suffer because of the bad. This sure is a prime example. Everyone has to suffer because of a few smokers."
Another replied,"They might as well move the stall out in the halls--no one has any privacy."
"It's too bad that a few have to ruin things for everyone else; smokers are in the minority. Something's wrong if they can't withhold from smoking for one period. If they have to smoke then they should go to the woods--Smokey Bear won't take the doors off the outhouses."