A high school in the Netherlands has banned smoking and vaping unless students have written permission from their parents and wear a yellow high-visibility vest while doing it, reports DutchNews.
The measure is aimed at discouraging unhealthy habits and at involving parents in school policy.
“It’s one of the things that used to be part of the parents’ responsibilities but are now being left to the school,” school board Chairman Hans van Beekum told De Telegraaf. “And the image of all those kids vaping in front of the school was horrible. We needed to do something,” he said.
So far, only nine parents at the 1,300-pupil Lyceum aan Zee school in Den Helder said their children could vape or smoke during breaks. Some parents objected to the yellow vest and even made comparisons to the yellow Star of David that the Nazis required Jews to wear during the WWII occupation of the Netherlands.
School Director Hielke ter Veld said the vests are simply meant to identify those who can smoke from the rest of the pupils.
Ter Veld hopes the measure will also discourage smoking and vaping among students. “Most pupils won’t want to ask permission from their parents and wear the vest,” she said. “They will smoke less and that will hopefully become part of the school culture. If we only get a few pupils to stop smoking then it’s worth it.”