EVERY day, more than 100 students from Republic Polytechnic (RP) blatantly flout smoking rules by lighting up at the void deck of a Woodlands block.
Students are not allowed to light up on campus and the school has also established a "no smoking" zone around its premises.
Block 806, Woodlands Street 81, a seven-minute walk from RP, lies within the smoke-free zone.
The students appear there during their lunch break, which is from 11.30am to 2pm.
After The New Paper reported last week that some Choa Chu Kang residents were unhappy that students from ITE College West caused a nuisance in their neighbourhood, we received complaints about students from RP and the Lasalle College of the Arts smoking and littering.
Housewife Jane Koh, 51, who lives in the opposite block, said that from her second-storey flat, she usually sees "40 to 50" students gathering at the void deck of Block 806 every day.
"They smoke, make noise and throw their cigarette butts all over the place," the resident of three years added.
Two other residents who have lived there for more than 20 years said the problem started in 2006 when RP moved to its permanent location in Woodlands.
Construction supervisor Simon Lim is upset that the students pollute the air in the coffee shop at the block.
The coffee shop places six or so additional tables and chairs outside.
Mr Lim, 50,and his friends have lunch there sometimes.
"We are non-smokers.When the wind blows, the smoke gets in our face," he said.
When the TNP team was at Block 806 on Tuesday, we saw about 100 students arrive around 11.30am. An hour later many of them had left, but another 150 or so students streamed in.
They spread themselves across the void deck in groups of three to four. Most stood as they puffed away, while others sat on the stone benches or on the ground.
Two students sat on chairs that belonged to the coffee shop.
When we approached a group of four students and asked why they were smoking there, a 19-year-old first-year student, who gave his name only as Rus, said: "This is the only place that is not directly opposite the school."
Some students said they choose to smoke at Block 806 as they can buy cigarettes at the minimart there and the coffee shop.
The minimart owner, Madam Jennifer Loh, who is in her 40s, said she gets brisk business from students buying drinks and cigarettes. Every day, she sells 20 to 30 packs of cigarettes to RPstudents.
She said she checks the students' identity cards to make sure that they are not underage.
It's against the law to sell tobacco products to those below 18. The New Paper understands that first-year polytechnic students are aged 17 to 20.
By 2pm, the students had dispersed and headed back to school.
But they left behind a mess - more than 200 cigarette butts and at least 10 empty drink cans and plastic cups littered the ground. The ashtray on top of the dustbin at the void deck was filled to the brim with cigarette butts.
There were two other bins outside the void deck but only a handful of students used them.
A town council cleaner, who declined to be named, said he spends about an hour every day cleaning up after the students.
An RP spokesman said the school had indicated the "no smoking" boundary on a map and e-mailed it to all its students.
According to a copy of the e-mail obtained by TNP, smoking is banned in "the polytechnic, in Admiralty Park, on all roads, sidewalks, bus stops and the overhead bridges around the polytechnic, and in the area bounded by Woodlands Avenue 2, Woodlands Avenue 9 and Woodlands Street 81".
The RPspokesman said: "Our roving discipline officers conduct spot checks from time to time."
He added that the school had written to the National Environment Agency (NEA) on several occasions last year, requesting them to send in enforcement officers.
"They have acknowledged our concerns and have worked closely with RP to conduct regular enforcement in the estate," he said.
Checks with the NEA showed that 51 tickets were issued for littering offenders at Woodlands Street 81 between January and Oct 26 this year. The latest patrol conducted at Blocks 801 to 808 was on Sept 25.
When the TNP team was at Block 806 yesterday, three male discipline officers from RP were seen approaching the students.
The students quickly walked away. After approaching four students sitting on the grass verge and speaking to them for a while, the officers left.
After reading this article, I feel that the students are being inconsiderate to the residents living there. They are only concern about their own needs and they neglected the resident's needs. Even if they need to smoke outside their school, they should not crowd together in a block to smoke together. Why can't they split up and smoke somewhere else?
ReplyDeleteI believe that this incident does not only happen to Republic Polytechnic. There are also many students who smoke under the age of 18. I believe that actions should be taken by the National Environment Agency(NEA) and Republic Polytechnic discipline officers.
Personally, I also hate smokers who smoke close to me. As we know, inhaling second hand smoke is very bad for our health. The damage to our lungs are more serious than those who smoke.
I think that the government need to come in and solve this smoking problem. Even if the government have implemented a smoking ban extension with effect from 1 January 2009, it is not very effective. There are still many smokers who do not follow this law. I feel that NEA should send more officers around to catch those smokers that do not follow the law.
Rebecca
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article I feel that the poly student should not gather together under the void deck to smoke. Firstly, it pollutes the environment down there and caused several inconvenience to the residence as it will be dirty and unsightly. Secondly it brings down the school's image as members of the public will feel that the school's student are inconsiderate and it also leaves a bad impression.
In my own opinion I feel that the school ought to do something soon as the residence don't deserve to have their void deck crowded with students smoking. Furthermore I believe the school don't encourage students smoking, especially if there re underage students who are below the legal age for smoking. Even though the store vendor will not sell to them, they could ask someone or their friends who are of legal age to purchase for them.
In conclusion, I feel disturbed seeing this article as I think that it brings a really bad impression to the school and to others. It caused a mess after they gathered there and it is unfair for the cleaners and residence staying there. Moreover, for people using that path everyday having to endure second hand smoki g is really bad for health as well. I think that government should also do something about this such as setting up more anti smoking campaigns etc. Parents should also keep an eye on their child so that at young age they could kick the habit early or do not even start as it is a really bad influence.
After reading the article, I feel that the Poly students are thoughtless. Although they are not concern about breaking the rules as the area is already within the smoke-free zone, they are being unfair towards the residents in the Woodlands block. They are being selfish by not considering the needs of others living in that area. Not only that, they also could have split up and not smoke in a crowd as it worsen the area and pollutes the air. Furthermore they leave litters all over the place, which is clearly unfair to the cleaners.
ReplyDeleteAs this happens every day, I think that the Poly needs to allocate a designated smoking area to them. This way, the smokers will not affect the non-smokers and not give the school a bad name and impression. At the same time, it also allows the Poly to keep track of the under aged smokers for further actions, because I believe that among the smokers under the void deck, some of them are below 18 and cannot even smoke legally. Therefore the number of smokers will be cut down.
To conclude, I hope that the school authorities look into this matter closely and carry out immediate actions because breathing the second hand smoke is not good for health. I also hope that there will be more enforcement officers to patrol around the areas near the Poly and install CCTV cameras so that the culprits can be dealt with severely.
Students nowadays are getting out of hand. They tend to get influence by their peers easily. In my opinion, I feel that the school should do something to resolve this issue. The school can assign duties to the staff to patrol those areas during their students break time. Students tend to be more concern when they are unable to sit for exams so the school may consider issuing them a warning letter which could be accumulated to “demerit points”. These “demerit points can cause the student to be debarred from their exams if the number of warning letters reaches its maximum.
ReplyDeleteI feel that this issue should be resolved as soon as possible because firstly, these Republic Polytechnics (RP) students are ruining the image of their own school. Their actions are indirectly telling the residents staying at that area that RP is not a suitable environment to study in after their secondary school life. Secondly, it may be a bad influenced for those younger children living in that estate. These younger children may think that the students are right and they may follow their footsteps in future. Thirdly, it can also cause health issues to those non-smoking residents. Secondhand smokers suffer more than the smokers when they breathe in the smoke. Fourthly, it tarnishes the reputation of Singapore being a clean and green city if tourists were to see those 150 cigarettes butts littered on the floor daily after the students leave for their lessons. As a result, it is so sympathetic that the cleaner has to take one hour to clean just that void deck.
To solve this issue, the school can also inform the National Environmental Agency (NEA) and work hand in hand with them on catching those litter (cigarettes) bugs. Singaporeans, especially students, are afraid of getting fines just for a minor issue so this may prevent them from littering. Another method is to have more police officers patrolling around that estate so that these RP students will not be up to any mischief.
In my point of view, it is not their fault that they are smokers. However, they are in fault in that they are actually smoking in a no smoking zone around the school. To make things worst, they also go in big group between 100-200 students and only under a single block.
ReplyDeleteBy doing so, resident living there will be force to inhale the large amount of smoke that is being produced daily by the smoker at the void deck.
I feel that the school should be stricter in finding those who smoke in the no smoking zone and fined them in order to prevent them from gathering and smoking underneath a single block. The school can also try to provide a spot for smokers only so that it'll make life easier for both the smokers and the resident.
Also, the students should also at dispose the rubbish like cigarette butts and empty cans properly into the rubbish bin. This not only concern the resident, it also concern Singapore as a whole because foreigner that pass by the place will think that Singapore is such a dirty place.