Parent wants smokers to butt out at BTHS games

BY DANIELLE MEDINA
Correspondent

BRICK TOWNSHIP - P.J. Scelfo is fuming.

The mother of two sons in the Brick Township High School Marching Band told the Board of Education last week that crowds of people are smoking under the bleachers, right under where the band sits during football games.

"We have seven asthmatics on the team," Scelfo said at the Nov. 15 board meeting. "There have been instances were we've had to hand the kids their inhalers as soon as they got off the field. The cigarette smoke doesn't help."

Scelfo said that she's seen police officers who patrol the games ask people to put out their cigarettes. When the officer leaves, the smokers just light up again, she said.

"It's a clear defiance of the law," said Scelfo, who told the board she has been to all but one football game this season and that the situation occurs at every game.

"They're everywhere," she said. "Under the bleachers, on the side of the bleachers, near the concession stand."

When Scelfo approached the officers and asked why they weren't ticketing people, she said she was told they had been asked not to issue summonses because it would be bad public relations.

Scelfo asked board members if the directive came from them.

"That is not a policy of the Board of Education," Board President Sharon Kight said. "I would like the names of the police officers who told you that."

Police Capt. Douglas Kinney said he wasn't aware of any such policy, but that he would bring the issue to the patrol division commander.

"This sounds like an internal affairs complaint," Kinney said. "She needs to call in and make a complaint."

The police department has issued summonses to people smoking on school grounds, but none have been issued during football games, Kinney said.

But Scelfo said she heard the directive from different officers at every game.

"I don't want anyone to lose their job because they're doing what they've been told," Scelfo said. "I'm just asking for something to be done. Enforce the law."