Notice: These retyped excerpts from the R.I. General Laws relating to tobacco appear here as a convenience for visitors to our website, may be subject to typographical errors, and are not intended to be used as the basis for legal action.
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TITLE 23
Health and Safety
CHAPTER 23-20.9
Smoking in Schools
Index Of Sections
§ 23-20.9-1 Short title.
§ 23-20.9-2 Legislative findings.
§ 23-20.9-3 Legislative intent – Purpose.
§ 23-20.9-4 Definitions.
§ 23-20.9-5 Regulation of smoking in schools.
§ 23-20.9-6 Immediate application.
§ 23-20.9-7 Non-smoking program – Employees.
§ 23-20.9-8 Penalties and enforcement.
§ 23-20.9-9 Clinical use of tobacco products.
§ 23-20.9-10 Severability.
§ 23-20.9-11 Pre-emption.
§ 23-20.9-1 Short title. – This chapter shall be known as the "Smoking Restrictions in Schools Act".
§ 23-20.9-2 Legislative findings. – (a) It has been determined that smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in this country. More people die from cigarette smoking and related illnesses each year than die from alcohol, traffic accidents, cocaine and heroin, AIDS, murder, and suicide combined. Secondhand tobacco smoke alone causes up to fifty-three thousand (53,000) deaths per year in non-smokers. As reported by the center for disease control, secondhand smoke is the third leading cause of death in the United States today. Ninety percent (90%) of the people who smoke start by age nineteen (19), the average age being thirteen (13). Children exposed to tobacco smoke are at nearly twice the risk of being in poor or fair health as compared to children who are never exposed to tobacco smoke. Children exposed to tobacco smoke have an increased frequency of respiratory infections and decreased lung function. In Rhode Island, where the legal age to purchase tobacco products is eighteen (18), in 1988 the department of health reported the following smoking rates for Rhode Island students:
SEE THE BOOK FOR THE PROPER TABLE.
(b) The tobacco industry sells one billion packs of cigarettes to underage children every year. Nationwide, three thousand (3,000) underage children take up smoking every day with more than half addicted by age fourteen (14). Schools and the state of Rhode Island have a moral responsibility to protect the health and welfare of children from the health hazards of tobacco.
§ 23-20.9-3 Legislative intent – Purpose. – As tobacco now kills over four hundred and thirty-four thousand (434,000) people in the United States each year, it is the intent of this health legislation to eliminate the exposure of children attending school, and other persons working in schools, to the school-site health hazard of tobacco smoke and other tobacco product usage. It is the intent of this health legislation to protect the health and welfare of children in school by eliminating the exposure of children in school to the significant, life-threatening health hazard of tobacco smoke. It is the intent of this health legislation to create a tobacco-free school environment in Rhode Island.
§ 23-20.9-4 Definitions. – As used in this chapter:
1) "Person" shall mean any person or persons including but not limited to contract or other workers on school property, school students, school administrators, school employees, school faculty, and school visitors.
(2) "School or schools" shall mean any non-residential school building, public or private, of any city or town or community educational system regulated, directly or secondarily, by the Rhode Island board of regents for elementary and secondary education or the Rhode Island department of elementary and secondary education or any other state education board or local city or town school board or school committee or other legal educational sub-division acting thereunder. As used herein, the term "school or schools" shall also include but not be limited to school playgrounds, school administration buildings, indoor school athletic facilities, school gymnasiums, school locker rooms, school buses, other school vehicles, other school buildings whose use is not primarily residential, and outside areas within twenty-five (25) feet of any school building.
(3) "The governing body" shall mean the body or board or committee or individual, or the designated agent(s) or designee(s) of the aforementioned, responsible for, or who has control over, the administration of any elementary or secondary school, public or private, in the state.
(4) "Tobacco product usage" shall mean the smoking or use of any substance or item which contains tobacco, including but not limited to cigarettes, cigars, pipes, or other smoking tobacco, or the use of snuff or smokeless tobacco, or having in one's possession a lighted cigarette, cigar, pipe, or other substance or item containing tobacco.
§ 23-20.9-5 Regulation of smoking in schools. – (a) The governing body of each school in Rhode Island shall be responsible for the development of enforcement procedures to prohibit tobacco product usage by any person utilizing school facilities no later than September 1, 1993. All facilities used by a school, whether owned, leased or rented, shall be subject to the provisions of this chapter. Enforcement procedures shall be promulgated and conspicuously posted in each building no later than September 1, 1993. Provided, however, enforcement procedures regarding school personnel and teachers shall take effect on September 1, 1994.
(b) This chapter shall not modify, or be used as a basis for modifying school policies or regulations in effect prior to the passage of this chapter if the existing policies or regulations prohibit tobacco product usage in the school.
(c) All school areas where tobacco product usage is prohibited shall be clearly marked with "nonsmoking area" signs with bold block lettering at least three inches (3") high stating "Tobacco-Free School – Tobacco Use Prohibited". There shall be at least one "nonsmoking area" sign, in conformance with the above, at every building entrance and in other areas as designated by the governing body. Signs shall also be posted in every school bus and every school vehicle. Signs as detailed above shall be provided, without charge, by the department of health.
§ 23-20.9-6 Immediate application. – The provisions of § 23-20.9-1 et seq. shall be effective July 21, 1992 to any school which has a policy already in effect prohibiting all tobacco product usage in the school on July 21, 1992.
§ 23-20.9-7 Non-smoking program – Employees. – The governing body of each school in Rhode Island shall devise and implement a plan to provide smoking cessation programs for all employees who smoke and work with its jurisdiction. The programs shall be implemented at a central location within the geographic area under the jurisdiction of the governing body. Information on the programs shall be delineated and conspicuously posted in each building in the school by no later than March 1, 1993. Any fees for smoking cessation programs may be borne on a shared cost basis by the employee, the employer, and where applicable, the employee's union. Cessation programs shall be initiated no later than June 1, 1993. The responsibility of the governing body of each school to implement smoking cessation programs shall end on September 1, 1994.
§ 23-20.9-8 Penalties and enforcement. – (a) The Rhode Island department of health, having received a written and signed letter of complaint from a person, whose identity shall remain confidential, citing a school's violation of this chapter, shall enforce this entire chapter hereof against violations by the following actions:
(1) Serving written notice to comply to the governing body of the school, with a copy of the notice to the complaining citizens, requiring the governing body of the school to correct within ten (10) days any violation of any section of this chapter.
(2) Upon receiving a second complaint at the department of health for the same or continued violation in the same school, the complaint shall be resolved by calling upon the attorney general for the state to maintain within forty-five (45) days an action for injunction to enforce the provisions of this chapter to cause the correction of such violation or section, and for assessment and recovery of a civil penalty for such violation.
(b) The governing body of a school who violates or allows the violation of this chapter hereof shall be liable for a civil penalty, not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) nor to exceed five hundred dollars ($500), which penalty shall be assessed and recovered in a civil action brought by the attorney general in any court of competent jurisdiction. Each day such violation is committed or permitted to continue by a governing body shall constitute a separate offense and shall be punishable as such. Any penalty assessed and recovered in an action brought pursuant to this paragraph shall be paid over to the general treasurer and added to the general fund.
(c) In undertaking the enforcement of this chapter, the state is assuming an undertaking only to promote the general health and welfare. It is not assuming, nor is it imposing on its officers and employees, an obligation for breach of which it is liable in money damages to any person who claims that such breach proximately caused injury.
§ 23-20.9-9 Clinical use of tobacco products. – The prohibitions of this chapter shall not apply to the use of a tobacco product if used as part of a limited classroom demonstration to show the health hazards of tobacco.
§ 23-20.9-10 Severability. – If any provision of this chapter or the application thereof to any person or circumstances is held invalid in a court test, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of the chapter, which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this chapter are declared to be severable.
§ 23-20.9-11 Pre-emption. – Nothing contained herein shall be construed to restrict the power or authority of any Rhode Island city, town or other legal subdivision to adopt and enforce additional local laws, ordinances, or regulations that comply with at least the minimal applicable standards to establish smoke-free schools as set forth in this chapter.
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