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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) The Columbia School District Policy Committee on Monday voted to clarify its tobacco and vaping policy, allowing for the immediate termination of employees after a single violation. It’s one of 180 policies under review by the committee, which hopes to update and eliminate outdated ones. The goal is to complete the full review to make future evaluations easier, ideally every three years. So far, the committee has reviewed about 60% of those policies. The committee noted policy updates often come from the Missouri School Board Association, which prioritizes changes based on urgency. Some revisions are required immediately to comply with new laws, while others stem from administrative requests, board input, or community feedback. The current tobacco and vaping policy prohibits employees, students and visitors from possessing, smoking, vaping, consuming, displaying, promoting or selling tobacco or vaping products on any district property or during any district-sponsored event, even if held off campus. The rule also applies to district transportation and any leased, or contracted, facilities used for education, health care or early childhood programs. A recent study from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found youth tobacco use has declined in recent years, but is still prevalent across the country. According to the study, about 2.25 million middle and high school students — or 8.1% nationwide — reported current use of tobacco products, down from 2.8 million in 2023. Board of Education Vice President and Policy Committee Chair Paul Harper said while CPS hasn’t had any issues with staff during his time in the district, it has been a recurring issue with students. “It's certainly been on some of our discipline reports that we've received, and it still remains a problem,” Harper said. “I don't recall seeing any employee disciplined. Certainly, we have students who are disciplined for it all the time.” Noelle Gilzow -- a teacher at CPS and president of the Columbia Missouri chapter of the National Education Association – retired in an email to ABC 17 News that she had not heard of staff using tobacco or vaping products on campus. The original policy reads: “Students and employees who violate this policy will be disciplined in accordance with applicable board policies and may be offered referrals to smoking cessation programs. Employees may be disciplined or terminated for repeated violations. Visitors may be excluded from district property." The proposed change from the Missouri School Board Association to the policy is to remove language that states “employees may be disciplined or terminated for repeated violations” and replace it with “discipline, including immediate termination, may result from a single violation or repeated violations.” However, after discussing MSBA’s interpretation of the change, board members expressed concern and confusion about whether the new wording would require administrators to fire an employee after just one violation. “We always talk about judgment calls. Do we get into any issues where we terminate this person for the first violation, but we didn’t terminate that person for the third violation?” Board member April Ferrao said during the meeting. After about five minutes of discussion, the board voted to remove the proposed wording, leaving disciplinary decisions to administrators. “The way it's worded under MSBA, you get a free one,” Harper said during the meeting. “Just getting rid of that sentence means you don't get a free one.” The policy voted on by the board now reads: “Students and employees who violate this policy will be disciplined in accordance with applicable board policies and may be offered referrals to smoking cessation programs. Visitors may be excluded from district property.” “The current policy really wasn't that clear,” Harper told ABC 17 News. “It basically said that there had to be multiple incidences of violations in order to discipline a teacher or an employee for tobacco use. We essentially made it so that they can be disciplined on the first instance.” The policy does not apply to nicotine pouches, only vaping and tobacco products. The stated goal of the policy is to “promote the health and safety of all students and staff, set a good example for students and promote the cleanliness of district property.” The change will now head to the Board of Education for final approval.
