LANCASTER, S.C. — With students nationwide using vaping products on a more frequent basis, the Lancaster County School District is partnering with health officials to prevent their use in local schools.
The district is testing the use of vape detectors at Lancaster High School that would detect the smell of vapes in areas such as bathrooms. If the detectors sense a vape smell, it will send an alert to administrators, letting them know where the products are located.
LCSD hosted a virtual Zoom conference for parents Feb. 22, in collaboration with Smokefree SC, that addressed both the short- and long-term effects of students using vaping products.
“The sensors are set at a certain rate and if it goes over, it will send an alert out to the administrators and they’ll be able to go in and check those facilities out,” said Lonnie Plyler, director of safety and transportation for LCSD.
Plyler said the district has seen an increase in vaping cases among middle and high school students. Since the installation of the detectors in January, the hope is that the district can gather data on when the products are being used, as well as the location during the school day.
“We knew we had a problem and we wanted to address the problem with the number of vapes being collected at school, not only with the administrators, but also with our metal detectors and drug dogs. We were trying to find something that could detour that stuff from being in the schools,” Plyler said.
He also said the detectors could save someone’s life in the worst-case scenario.
“We don’t know what are in these vapes. One may have cotton candy added in it and the other may have THC, and if it is handed to somebody and they hit the vape, they could have an allergic reaction,” Plyler said.
Terra Bell, community engagement coordinator for Smokefree SC who participated in the conference, said that about 45.5% of high school students have reported using some form of tobacco. She also said that 24% use tobacco products with 21.2% using e-cigarettes.
Bell said that nicotine is the biggest concern among vaping products, which could produce long-term health damage to students if action isn’t taken quickly.
“It is by far the most popular choice between cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, cigars, pipes and e-cigarettes. Smokefree SC’s concern is that youth will become addicted to nicotine contained in e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes contain chemicals that can cause irreversible lung damage and alter teen brains,” Bell said.
“Using nicotine in adolescence can harm the parts of the brain that control attention, learning, mood and impulse control. Young people who use e-cigarettes may be more likely to smoke cigarettes in the future and suffer from poor mental health.”
Bell said that education is key to decreasing the number of vaping products throughout S.C. schools.
“Many educators claim students are using these products without realizing what’s inside of them. Education is needed by students, parents and educators on how to prevent youth from starting to use tobacco products and helping youth who currently use these products quit,” Bell said.
LCSD has a 10-day out-of-school suspension for students caught with a vaping product in school for their first offense, with future punishments determined by each school.
Plyler is hopeful that if successful at Lancaster High, the detectors can be implemented to other schools across the district.
“Once we get through our 30-day trial with administrators at Lancaster High School to see what the numbers are, we’ll go back to the [school] board and talk to them to see if we can use it in all of our schools,” he said.
