Smoking Up A Storm Teens On Lunch Break Causing Problem With Residents Near Post Falls High

Residents near Post Falls High School say a couple dozen students are fouling up the neighborhood with garbage, loud music and irreverent attitudes.

Cigarettes, too. Lots of cigarettes.

In fact, a battle between a few high schoolers and residents appears rooted in the absence of hiding places for underage smokers.

“They park here so they can come out on noon hours and smoke, play their radios loud and rev their cars,” said Donald McKnight. “I’ve been here for over 20 years and I haven’t seen a bunch like this one.”

Since last fall, students’ cars have queued up along William and Frederick streets, the result of a crowded school parking lot.

Neighbors don’t mind the cars - the school lot has been overcrowded for years - but they say some students are unruly and disrespectful.

Lorianne Bradetich has come home to find kids sitting on her front steps, puffing away. When she complained to school officials and the police, her house was “egged” and her mail box stuffed with garbage and condoms.

Even the trash can she stationed along the street to discourage littering has disappeared.

“The kids are trying to rule this neighborhood and we’re just not going to let them do it,” says Diane Fry, who has led a campaign to have “no parking” signs posted along William street near 16th, scarcely a block from the schoolhouse. “They’ve gone overboard.”

Last week, the Post Falls City Council voted to place signs in the neighborhood. Police also will tow illegally parked cars.

But they worry that signs will simply force students to move their cars to another neighborhood close to school.

“I don’t know how far we’ll have to push them away,” said Councilman Gus Johnson. “But by God we’re going to do something.”

The no-parking policy will apply to neighbors, not just the students. That means residents who have company might find their guests’ cars being towed.

Campus police officer Dan Brown said he’s cited more than 50 underage students this year for possessing tobacco or drugs. Last weekend, he issued three dozen citations after capturing students on video cameras.

“The kids nowadays have no respect for authority or anyone else but themselves,” said Brown, himself a Post Falls High graduate. “They used to go out into the woods where they were pretty much hidden … but houses are being built there now, so they just hang around their cars.”

Principal Warren Toney said he cannot legally control students once they’re off school property. Students are aware of that.

“If we tell them what to do, they tell us where to go and how to get there,” Toney said.

He said only a handful of students are the troublemakers. Neighbors agree that many students parking in the area simply need a place to put their vehicles. The school staff, too, has a hard time finding room to park at Post Falls High.

As Fry cleaned tree branches from her yard one morning, Tim Banning and Will Smith watched her from a car parked across the street. Banning had just been cited for smoking; Smith said he was cited on Friday.

Both have been expelled in the past.

“What they need to do is make the school parking lot bigger,” said Smith, with apparent sympathy for residents whose yards are strewn with litter. “…And they just can’t be so strict.”