Louisiana § RS 40:1291.24 - Smoking prohibited near school property; exceptions; penalty

§ RS 40:1291.24. Smoking prohibited near school property; exceptions; penalty

            A. Smoking, as defined in this Part, shall not be permitted, and no person shall smoke within two hundred feet of the entrances, exits, or outdoor areas of any public or private elementary or secondary school.

            B.(1) This Section shall not apply to smoking by a person of the legal age within private property that is within the two hundred feet boundary or to smoking by a person of the legal age occupying a moving vehicle in which smoking is not prohibited that is traveling through an area within the two hundred feet boundary.

            (2) This exception shall not apply to the property of a private elementary or secondary school.

            C. The state superintendent of education, with the approval of the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, shall develop a method by which to mark smoke-free areas, including the use of signs or other markings suitable to the situation. Signs or other markings shall be located in a visible manner on or near each school indicating that such area is a smoke-free area, and that such an area is within two hundred feet of the entrances, exits, or outdoor areas of any public or private elementary or secondary school. The state Department of Education shall assist each school system with providing for the posting required in this Subsection.

            D.(1) Any violation of this Section may be cited by any law enforcement officer by the issuance of a citation and summons to appear before a court of proper jurisdiction.

            (2) Such citations shall be in a form such that there shall be retained in each book of citations a receipt and each shall have a copy to be deposited by the law enforcement officer with a court having jurisdiction over the alleged offense.

            (3) Upon the deposit of the copy, the court shall notify the alleged violator of the time and place of his hearing or of his opportunity to plead guilty by the payment of his specified fine. Failure to appear, unless the fine is paid, may be punished within the discretion of the court as contempt of court.

            E.(1) Any person who is guilty of a violation of this Section shall, upon a first offense, be fined twenty-five dollars.

            (2) Any person who is guilty of violating this Section a second time shall be fined fifty dollars.

            (3) Any person who is guilty of violating this Section a third or subsequent time shall be fined one hundred dollars.

            F. The provisions of this Section shall not supersede the provisions of R.S. 40:1291.11(A).

            Acts 2014, No. 581, §1, eff. June 9, 2014; Redesignated from R.S. 40:1300.264 by HCR 84 of 2015 R.S.