Vaping FAQs

what should schools do about vaping

by Zack Berge Published 2 years ago Updated 1 year ago
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What should we do?

  1. Revise board policies to specifically call out vaping and related devices.
  2. Develop programs to educate students on the dangers of vapes and JUULs.
  3. Train staff to recognize the use of vapes and JUULs at school.
  4. Provide information and communication to parents about these devices and their prohibition at school.

There are many ways to tackle vaping in schools. Early education, diversion programs to help students quit, and engagement of peers, parents/guardians, and staff are good places to start.

Full Answer

Is vaping in schools really a problem?

Students share that it is fairly easy to discreetly vape in class, and that’s a huge problem. However, it can be mitigated with some staff training.

Is vaping a problem at your school?

Myth: There are no secondhand smoke risks from vaping. Fact: Like secondhand vapor, secondhand vapor is harmful. When kids are vaping in a school bathroom, others who enter the room inhale the nicotine and the harmful metals and chemicals.

How often should I be Vaping?

If you are just vaping to blow clouds, you should avoid the Nicotine, and just vape whenever. As often as you like. Usually when you first quit smoking, you vape a lot, pretty much at any thought of smoking, which is good; it allows your brain to see that vaping is a good replacement for smoking.

What can schools do to prevent cyberbullying?

The ideal model is a school that incorporates digital citizenship lessons into the school day. A few other things schools can do to help prevent cyberbullying: Start from the ground up. Build a community that rewards kindness and compassion, not only academic or athletic achievement. Use the Internet in lesson plans.

How can we reduce vaping?

What Is Vaping?

How Dangerous Is Vaping and Nicotine?

What Can School Boards Do?

What is a vaping device?

How can parents help their kids with addiction?

Is vaping safer than smoking?

See 2 more

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Why do schools care about vaping?

Experts agree that vaping is harmful to students' bodies and brains. There are toxic chemicals and metals in many e-cigarettes, and vaping can cause respiratory issues, and potentially cardiovascular problems, and even seizures. The nicotine itself is much more concentrated in e-cigarettes than traditional ones.

What teachers should know about vaping?

E-cigarettes contain harmful chemicals Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is highly addictive and can be harmful to brain development, which continues until about age 25. Using products that contain nicotine before age 25 can harm the part of the brain responsible for memory, attention, and learning.

How does vaping affect your grades?

"The long-term effect of nicotine is a higher risk for addiction and a negative impact on brain development, specifically, your working memory and attention span. So, high schoolers who smoke e-cigarettes could be risking their grades and, potentially, their future careers, because they can't pay attention in school."

Does vaping affect learning?

Brain risks: Nicotine affects your brain development. This can make it harder to learn and concentrate. Some of the brain changes are permanent and can affect your mood and ability to control your impulses as an adult.

School takes steps to stop student vaping - Village Life

After what Oak Ridge High School Principal Aaron Palm called “high levels of vaping use on campus,” the school staff is working to stop the trend by closing all but two school restrooms during class times and during lunch a campus monitor is outside each restroom, monitoring who enters and how many students are in the restroom at one time.

What is the most popular tobacco product among high school students?

E-cigarettes are the most popular tobacco product among high school students and they are on the rise with elementary children, so it’s no surprise that they’ve made their way onto school campuses. E-cigarettes are especially appealing to kids, and, since many look like everyday objects, they’re easy to hide.

Should schools have e-cigarette policies?

You should specifically address e-cigarettes in your policy, but make sure they aren’t punitive. This isn’t as much a discipline issue as a rehabilitation one. Instead of exclusionary discipline like in-school suspension, consider having students participate in interactive educational sessions like INDEPTH. Schools also need to have programs and counseling available on-site to help kids quit and support them through that process. This K-12 model policy is a great place to start.

Can students vape in class?

Students share that it is fairly easy to discreetly vape in class, and that’s a huge problem. However, it can be mitigated with some staff training. All administrators, teachers, and staff should be familiarized with the different types of products on the market (some even look like watches!), the harm they cause to lungs and developing brains, and the susceptibility of adolescents to addiction.

How many high school seniors use vapes?

Anne Rubin on January 17, 2018. Last year, one in three high school seniors used a vape or e-cigarette. So says the study Monitoring the Future, released by the renowned University of Michigan, that surveyed 45,000 students from 380 public and private secondary schools.

What is a vape device?

Far more popular with teens, vapes are small, refillable devices that heat “vape juice,” atomizing the liquid into a mist. Neither device uses tobacco, but both can deliver nicotine. Vapes can also contain substances like THC, the chemical found in marijuana. However, vapes are often just the juice.

Can you vape with THC?

Masked by sugary, fruity flavors, vape juice containing THC oil can go undetected. The University of Michigan study reports that while 1 in 10 students say they use vape juice containing nicotine, 1 in 20 teens report vaping marijuana. In other words, if a student has a vape at school, it is likely that you will have no idea what is inside the reservoir.

Can vaping be used in school?

For the most part, vaping should fall under the existing school policy on drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, but it can be complicated. A vaping device does not necessarily contain any nicotine. So it’s important to update your policy to specifically address vaping on school grounds and possession of vaping devices. Some schools move directly to suspension, but others are taking a different approach, believing that time hanging out alone at home is not a strong solution for students caught with a vaping device at school. Completion of a drug and alcohol prevention course is another possible consequence; many schools are seeing good results when they use this method.

Is honey nut cereal vape?

Yes, honey-nut cereal is now a vape flavor.

Is vaping hard to detect?

Vaping can be hard to detect. Vape technology has evolved quickly, making devices small and discreet. While some models are larger and look like refillable lighters with a mouthpiece, others are shaped like fountain pens.

Why do youth vape?

Most common reasons youth vape 2. 31% Use by "friend or family member". 31% Availability of "flavors such as mint, candy, fruit, or chocolate". 17% Belief that "they are less harmful than other forms of tobacco such as cigarettes".

What should schools do to protect their students from these products?

Many of our youth are already addicted to nicotine through these tobacco products and therefore efforts are needed to help kids quit. Schools should offer programs on-site to help students quit or connect them with resources to support them in breaking free from their addiction.

Is youth e-cigarette use really an epidemic?

The FDA has called e-cigarette use among teens an epidemic with no signs of abating.

What is INDEPTH in vaping?

Intervention for Nicotine Dependence: Education, Prevention, Tobacco and Health (INDEPTH) is an "out-of-the-box" alternative to suspension or citation that seeks to address the teen vaping problem in a more supportive way. Instead of exclusionary discipline, students participate in a series of interactive educational sessions focused on nicotine addiction, establishing healthy alternatives and making the change to be free of all nicotine and tobacco products. The program is administered by an adult facilitator in either a one-on-one or group format and can be offered in a school or community-based setting. Visit Lung.org/INDEPTH, call 1-800-LUNGUSA (1-800-586-4872) or email INDEPTH@Lung.org to learn more.

What is a vape talk?

The Vape Talk is a resource for parents to learn more about how to talk to teens about vaping and download a conversation guide. Not On Tobacco (N-O-T) is the American Lung Association’s teen smoking cessation program and helps teens who want to quit, and provides the tools, information and support to quit for good.

What is the FDA's tobacco prevention campaign?

FDA's tobacco prevention campaign which now features ads to educate teens on the dangers of e-cigarettes. Schools can take advantage of free print materials and web content from the campaign.

Can nicotine be harmful to kids?

Kids may not realize that the products they are using contain nicotine, which is highly addictive and can harm adolescent brain development.

Who is the principal of middle school vaping?

And high school students trained in prevention education will be deployed to the middle schools to talk to younger students about the dangers of vaping, according to Principal Gregg Wieczorek. “I would rather convince a kid to not start, than to ever have to convince them to stop,” Wieczorek said.

Why is it important to start a vaping program with informational letters?

They started with informational letters to parents—a simple but important step because many parents did not know about the prevalence of vaping, were not talking to their children about vaping, or did not know the most effective ways to do so.

What happens if you get caught with a vape pen?

In addition to suspension, students face a possible felony charge if the liquid in the vape pen includes a banned substance like tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), an ingredient in cannabis.

What is Boulder Valley School District?

The Boulder Valley School District in Boulder County , Colo., has moved from letting individual schools decide how to handle such incidents to developing a community-wide approach that now stresses prevention efforts, including education for students about the risks and how to make good decisions, and informational parent nights that feature the county’ s public health department, law enforcement, local doctors, and experts. They are also working with local physicians to ask screening questions during regular check-ups.

How long does it take to vape a cigarette?

Another thing that has health and addiction researchers worried is that a significant number of teenagers who start vaping—30 percent according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse—progress to traditional cigarettes within six months.

What percentage of teens believe e-cigarettes contain flavoring?

But many teens are not aware of the hazards of vaping. Sixty-six percent of teens believe their e-cigarettes contain just flavoring, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

What is a vaporizer pen?

Vaporizer pens and other sleek electronic devices convert nicotine-infused liquids to water vapor that can be inhaled.

How can we reduce vaping?

The first step in reducing childhood demand for vaping products is to build awareness of the significance of the problem. Governments in America and elsewhere are experimenting with anti-vaping campaigns to help spread the message through media. These campaigns will probably get bigger (and hopefully more effective) as government representatives respond to the pressure to do something quickly.

What Is Vaping?

Although cigarettes remain the world's main delivery vehicle for nicotine as of 2019, there are now many electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), known by many names: e-cigarettes, pods, e-cigs, vape pens, and other evolving names, including the brand name Juul. These products were initially developed and marketed as a healthier alternative for smokers trying to quit, but at this point it's clear that they also play a role in getting new customers to start, including children.

How Dangerous Is Vaping and Nicotine?

Nicotine-laced vapors have been presumed to be less toxic than tobacco smoke, which is why people trying to quit cigarettes have found them of interest. But they are not benign, especially for children, including teens. Nicotine interferes with brain development. Vaping devices degrade with use, adding toxic metal nanoparticles to the haze.

What Can School Boards Do?

Boards and administrators are faced with the challenge of balancing demands for "zero tolerance" enforcement with the reality that some of their students and faculty may be struggling with addiction.

What is a vaping device?

The Center on Addiction describes a vaping device as consisting of "a mouthpiece, a battery, a cartridge for containing the e-liquid or e-juice, and a heating component … which turns the contents of the e-liquid into an aerosol. The e-liquid in vaporizer products usually contains a propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin-based liquid with nicotine, flavoring and other chemicals and metals, but not tobacco."

How can parents help their kids with addiction?

Counselors and psychologists with expertise in addiction tend to encourage calm, informed conversations rather than heated threats or punishment. Ultimately, people make their own decisions at any age, and for adolescents a sense of independence tends to be pretty important. Vaping is a pretty dumb habit, and kids tend to know it, but there can be many reasons why quitting could be hard. The blog Empowering Parents has some useful verbage to help parents prepare, so that a conversation can be helpful.

Is vaping safer than smoking?

The decline of smoking is being matched by a rapid rise in "vaping," a less-obtrusive system for inhaling vapor spiked with nicotine. Vaping companies position these products as safer than tobacco — a claim now under investigation by the FDA. (Vaping tools can be used to deliver other substances, too, but let's stick with nicotine for now.) The best-known vaping brand, Juul, is substantially owned by Altria, the tobacco conglomerate that owns Phillip-Morris.

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