Resident across from WW-P High School South has had enough of student smoking detritus
By: Greg Forester
WEST WINDSOR Call it a case of the law of unintended consequences.
Create rules prohibiting students from smoking on the grounds of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, and you have created the impetus for intrepid student-smokers to venture off school grounds, cross Clarksville Road, and light up.
Smoking rules that prohibit smoking on any school board property may cut down on students lighting up in the parking lot and outside of the building, but they have drastically increased the number of cigarette butts and pieces of drug paraphernalia ending up on Zena Hundertmark’s property on Clarksville Road.
"We are cleaning up for these kids, and it’s nearly every day that I have to deal with this," said Ms. Hundertmark.
"It’s not just cigarette butters either," she said at last week’s council meeting. "I found an empty bag of cocaine on my property once."
Now Ms. Hundertmark and her husband Garry want the township and the school district to do something to address the problems created by its smoking policies.
In response to the problems, township officials said they would speak to the school board and seek solutions to a very visible problem in the area around the high school.
Anyone driving down Clarksville Road, or other roads near the high school, can usually find a group of students huddled on the sidewalk across from school puffing away quickly before heading back to school for class.
"Everyone sees them out there, but no one wants to do anything about it because it’s not their property," Ms. Hundertmark said.
One suggestion made at the council session last week was to expand the no-smoking zone from the edge of High School South property, to a new line across the street, up to property lines of residences across the street from the school.
Ms. Hundertmark has looked into possible solutions herself, finding some New Jersey municipalities that enforce a stricter version of the no-smoking on school grounds policy that extends beyond school board property to a one-mile radius around the schools.
The students usually jaywalk across Clarksville Road to get to the property, but the police are too busy to do anything about it, according to Mr. Hundertmark.
Council members suggested a stronger response from school officials dealing with the smoking students.
"Maybe the school board can look into increasing the penalties for smoking, with longer suspensions and Saturday detentions to start with," Councilwoman Linda Geevers said.
Councilman George Borek said he thought the school already had the right policies in place to deter students from smoking.
"The school has a good policy where anyone caught smoking gets suspended from taking part in sports and other activities," Mr. Borek said.
Mr. Borek said it was also time to try and get parents more involved in being responsible for their children’s activities.
"The parents of these children need to become more responsible for what their kids are doing," he said. "How many of them drive by every day and see their children out there on Clarksville Road and just look the other way?"
Councilman Charles Morgan said that while the school district looks at its own smoking policies, the council plans on determining the best solution for the problem on the township side.
"I think we want to do something but council needs to work with the administration and the police department to come up with a solution that all of us agrees makes sense," said Mr. Morgan. "We are at the introductory stage of trying to address this problem."
Students now cross Clarksville Road to get their smoking fix, but students in the past used to smoke near a tree directly across Penn Lyle Road from the rear parking lot of the high school, Ms. Hundertmark said.
The residents there took matters into their hands.
"They greased up the tree so any time the kids went over there they would get grease all over their clothes every time they went out there," Ms. Hundertmark said.

