Vaping for us that are significantly older is just smoking, but at a much higher intensity level. I can remember that smoking was the single most offense in high school when I was growing up. In the late 70’s some high school decided that if the parents felt it was ok for their student to smoke, then fill out a permission slip. The smoking area was located in the back parking lot. I grew up in upstate New York, the weather is not the best, but there were plenty of students outside smoking (and inside in the bathrooms smoking). Smoking has advanced to vaping.
What is vaping – Kids Health defines vaping as, Vaping is the inhaling of a vapor created by an electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) or other vaping device. E-cigarettes are battery-powered smoking devices. They have cartridges filled with a liquid that usually contains nicotine, flavorings, and chemicals. The liquid is heated into a vapor, which the person inhales. You can click on the link above to read more about the effects.
I will focus this vaping topic on nicotine only. Vaping also is referred when the vaper is using THC oil (marijuana).
Vaping in schools has been on the rise since the first e-cigarettes were introduced in 2003. My three years as a security guard, I can safely say that vaping consumes much of the schools staff. I don’t believe that a week goes by without someone being caught vaping on school campus. Vaping definitely makes that old smoking days easier. Vape comes in various flavors. Making the harsh old days much smoother to inhale. Some of the most popular flavors are cotton candy, peach, watermelon and berry.
Short Stories to give you an idea of how vaping is pretty wide spread:
- My very first week on the job. A complete newbie and really knew very little about vaping. I was at my location during the morning before school started and was doing some walking around and happened to decide to walk into the bathroom. I happened to walk up on a student that was vaping. His friend looked at me and pointed. Too late, I had already saw what was going on. The student quickly put the vape in his pocket and tried talking his way out. I said, look I maybe new, but you and I will be going to visit your administer right now. He came back with, school hasn’t started yet. We went to the office and when the administer said, you can either hand it over or we can do a search. He quickly handed it over and took his punishment.
- One thing I learned early on, is that you get to see many of the same faces every couple of hours going to the restroom (for the whole day). It is like the student leaves class (during instruction) and spends 5 – 10 minutes in the restroom. 8 periods in a day, about an hour of wasted time in the restrooms. I have walked up on many students caping in the restrooms over my three years. Some were easy to see. I had one time that both students were standing on the toilet passing the vape back and forth with they were talking. Some of the students are so sharp, that they now that if the vape is not in their hands, they could get off. In the situation, since I watched both of them vaping – they both got their consequences.
- I was outside doing the golf cart taking care of locking/unlocking and driving the whole campus. I happened to be coming back from locking some gates when I noticed a large plume of smoke. I watched as I was driving closer to that location and more smoke. I walked up on the car and inside were two students listening to loud music, vaping and just having fun. The school day had already started. I knocked on the window and asked them what they were doing? They said they were just getting ready for the day! I pointed out that the day was going to start with them coming with me to their administer. They told me they are not in school right now. I reminded them that vaping on campus is the violation. Sorry, you are on campus! They both tried to hide their vapes in the car. Little did they know that on campus cars can be searched as well.
- I received a call from a teacher that she had found some stuff in her classroom after the students left. I went to the classroom, where the teacher handed me a completely new box of 10 vape pens (minus one). Peach flavor!
- At the end of the school year, our school always used to do backpack searches. This has been in place to ensure that there is no property damage or harmful items. A notice goes out to all students and parents that please do not bring in scissors, glass or permanent markers. Hint – if you don’t need your backpack, don’t bring it. My first year, first day of searches I found a student that left their vape pen in their backpack. As we were walking to her administer I asked, “why did you not take this out of your backpack knowing that searches were happening starting today?” She told me she forgot and said that it was out of liquid and she should have thrown it out. This student did not come across as a vapor. She was a straight A student. She told me the stress and pressure that her family puts on her – vaping was an outlet to ease her stress.
There is no major bullet to stopping students from vaping. Smoking has been around for quite some time. What we can do is try to educate and communicate with our students about the consequences of vaping. Nicotine is addictive. Watching the students that are have been and continue to vape – they are out of the classrooms quite a bit. The lungs and heart will be have problems.
Vapes are easy to get. Google search and see how you students are getting them on-line. Friends and family are pretty much how all of the students told me how they got them. Lastly, they can get them from other students (remember the box from in a classroom).
Keep a watchful eye on your kids!
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