Students might notice a new installation in the Freeport High School bathrooms: vape detectors.
FHS installed vape detectors in all school bathrooms earlier this month because there was too much vaping going on, according to Heal Academy Dean Janet Tomita.
“I’m in favor of them” Tomita said. “Students, especially those with chronic illnesses, shouldn’t have to be exposed to the smell and smoke. It’s also keeping crowds of students out of the bathroom.” “We currently have vape
When the vape detectors first got installed, the alarms went off on average 12 times an hour, according to the FHS deans, but it’s slowly going down to two or three per hour. So far, 27 students have been written up for vaping since the detectors were installed which is up from 20 students last month, according to data from Panorama.
“If you go in, you would not hear them go off,” Tomita said. “They actually send a text message, an email, and an app alert to the people who have access to it, so that we could get to that bathroom that it went off in.”
The vape detectors provides four main information to staff: if the detector is touched or tampered with, how far away the smoke is coming from, if a vape is currently being smoked, and it can separate THC and nicotine from cologne and hairsprays.
“They been catching a lot more students with the vape detectors and cracking down more on the hiding spots,” senior Julius Mosley said.
Lowering vaping isn’t just about the rules, it’s about their developing brain and their health and protecting their future.
“It feels reasonable because it’s very bad for you and it smell bad. It lowkey gives me a headache,” junior Kamryn Bradbury said.
Majority of the time, teens get their hands on vapes from sources like their friends or family and they mostly vape in school and at home, according to Science Direct. Vaping became popular among teens in the 2010s and has been classified as an epidemic in 2018, the National Institutes of Health said.
The most common consequence, according to Panorama, is an in-school suspension, but students caught vaping at school could potentially receive:
- One day of in-school suspension with a parent re-entry meeting and an intervention video about vaping
- One to two days of in-school suspension with a phone call home and your name goes on a random search list
- Out-of-school suspension with a parent re-entry list and your name again gets added to the random search list
Students who are caught with THC cartridges at school could potentially receive:
- One to three days of out-of-school suspension with a mandatory parent re-entry meeting and your name goes on a random search list
- Up to 10 days pf out-of-school suspension and possible expulsion or going to an alternative placement with a police notification
