Despite Heat on Tobacco Producers, Some Schools Still Permit Smoking

By Jessica Portner

At lunch time in Greene County, N.C., high school students take cigarette breaks on an outdoor patio, as long as they have their parents' written consent.

High school students in Johnsonville, S.C., are permitted a periodic nicotine fix in a school parking lot if an adult is present and the teenagers have notes from home.

While the tobacco industry has been pressed to commit millions of dollars to stamping out youth smoking and President Clinton has placed anti-smoking efforts at the top of his public-health agenda, more than a few districts around the country are bucking the trend and refusing to make...