Page 116 - Security Today, November/December 2019

Past Month Use
8th Graders
10 Graders
12th Graders
Any vaping
6.6%
13.1%
16.6%
Vaping Nicotine
3.5%
8.2%
11.0%
Vaping Marijuana
1.6%
4.3%
4.9%
Vaping "Just Flavoring"
5.3%
9.2%
9.7%
“Ways to track vaping in school restrooms
has increased dramatically over the
years as more companies are creating
sophisticated vaping detectors.” By Tom Reilly
Schools Need to Be on Alert
VF
also now have odors that smell like cool mint or mango drifting from the student bathrooms.
The 2017 National Youth Tobacco Survey found that 11.7 percent of high school students and 3.3 percent of middle school students used e-cigarettes. And in many instances, the restrooms in America’s high schools and middle schools, where by law, video cameras are not allowed, have become a popular place to enjoy the puff of the day as this epidemic continues to grow.
The National Education Association estimates that up to three mil- lion students are using vaping products, many using the JUUL brand, which not only smells and tastes good, but also looks like a really cool computer flash drive that can be charged in a USB port. Each JUUL cartridge contains roughly the same amount of highly-addictive nic- otine as 20 cigarettes.
“It is happening in the hallways, it is happening in the bathrooms, we even had a kid a couple of years ago vaping in the classroom,” said Cam Traut, a school nurse at Libertyville High School in the Chicago suburbs and a National Association of School Nurses board member. “I get the sense that students think it is safe. The marketing or adver- tising was, ‘oh, this is a much healthier version of traditional, tobacco cigarettes,’ so the kids have focused on that ‘healthier’ component. And it’s taken off like wildfire.”
“As a school, we’re trying to provide some education to the kids so they understand the health risks they’re taking, and we’re also educat- ing our staff on what to look for... but it’s an uphill battle,” Traut said.
Those flavors are attractive to kids, warns the American Academy of Pediatrics. Meanwhile, 15- to-17-year-olds are more than 16 times more likely to be JUUL users than 25- to 34-year-olds, according to the Truth Initiative, a nonprofit public health organization that was established 20 years ago as part of a settlement between tobacco com- panies and states. The chart below tells more of the story.
The device’s maker says it is intended only for adults trying to quit smoking, that its website aims to block underage customers, and the company supports legislation to raise the minimum age for vaping products to 21 nationwide. But as JUUL and the FDA play the “he- said, she-said” game, young people are getting sick and, in some instances, dying.
Ways to track vaping in school restrooms has increased dramati- cally over the years as more companies are creating sophisticated vap- ing detectors, some that even have the capabilities to detect loud noises, which can be an indication of bullying, breaking glass and other possible violent or anti-social behavior.
New York’s Plainedge High School was among the first to install new bathroom vape sensors that can detect e-cigarette. Few students have been caught so far, but officials say that is not a sign of failure.
“The truth of the matter is the kids see it, they know what it is —
aping has reached out and touched more than 3 million students
or years manufacturers have been finding ways to make products more appealing to kids, either by design or through the senses, such as smell or taste. We now have grape-flavored pediatric cold medicine and vitamins that look like gummy bears. So it makes perfect sense that we
56 campuslifesecurity.com | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019
Credit: National Institute on Drug Abuse (2017)
and it in itself is a deterrent,” said Edward Salina, superintendent of Plainedge Public Schools.
“We’ve seen significant increases across the student body,” said Robert Keuther, principal at Marshfield High School on the south shore of Massachusetts. “This is not something specific to one group of kids. It is across all of my grades, nine to 12. It is all students.”
Taking the Short Route Between Detection and Prevention
But as a school administrator, when it comes to having vaping detec- tors in bathrooms you have to take the next logical step, which is to have the technology available to not only detect, but do what needs to be done to also prevent (i.e. catch the perpetrators). And to that end, many security companies are now working with schools and vape- detection manufacturers that are making these detection devices available to schools throughout the country.
These vaping sensors can be installed in bathrooms where it will detect vapor from electronic cigarettes in real time, including the detection of THC oil, a chemical found in both e-cigarettes and marijuana. Still, detection is only as useful as the ability to monitor that detection.
But how do you monitor something in an area where cameras are not permitted? Unfortunately, this is where some schools have blurred the line between security and invasion of privacy. Recently an Alabama principal made headlines after he ordered the removal of the doors in several of his school’s bathroom stalls. In that Alabama case, the doors were put back in one week later after parents issued concerns about their children’s privacy. In another effort, a school district in Texas required students to roll up their sleeves when enter- ing school in an attempt to prevent them from hiding e-cigarettes. Neither action was particularly popular with parents, but it shows the extremes schools are going through to stem the rising tide. There are better alternatives.
Advancements in technology have given security companies the ability to integrate these restroom vape detectors so that alerts for any infractions can be sent in real time to the appropriate parties’ phone and emails. It can also be integrated into the school’s security/video systems. In addition, the technology exists to integrate with cameras outside the restrooms, so as to monitor who enters and leaves corre- spondent to when the infractions occur. This means if Larry and Billy walk out of the bathroom minutes after the vaping detector signals a time-stamped message to the principal’s email, you can be pretty sure that they are doing something that they are not supposed to be doing.
Vaping Alert