School hit for student smoking

NAGOYA (Kyodo) Police have searched dormitories at a private high school for dropouts in Shinshiro, Aichi Prefecture, on suspicion students were allowed to smoke in violation of the prefecture's ordinance on juvenile protection, sources said Sunday.

The Aichi Prefectural Police are considering sending a report on executives of Tsugeno High School to prosecutors after ashtrays were confiscated from rooms allegedly set aside for smoking in the dorms.

"The rooms are not for smoking," school principal Kazunari Tsujita was quoted as telling the police. "They are part of an education program to prevent (students) from smoking."

According to the school, rooms dubbed "antismoking guidance rooms" were set aside in each of its four dormitories for boys in April 2007.

Teachers check whether students have been smoking and scold them if they are found to have done so, school officials said.

Because the dormitories are surrounded by mountains, school officials fear there could be a risk of a forest fire if students smoke cigarettes outside the facility.