Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 28 May 2019
Discipline or treatment? Schools rethinking vaping response

By PAT EATON-ROBB Compared with regular Experts say the CDC clas- treatment and prevention. health consequences and
Associated Press cigarettes, the research sifies e-cigarettes as a to- The Conejo Valley Unified how companies have ma-
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A on the health effects of e- bacco product, and many School District in southern nipulated students to use
glimpse of student athletes vaping products by making
in peak physical condition it appear fun and cool. She
vaping just moments after said that two-pronged ap-
competing in a football proach led to a successful
game led Stamford High decrease in the use of tra-
School Principal Raymond ditional cigarettes.
Manka to reconsider his “To expect a 13, 14 or
approach to the epidemic. 15-year-old to break an ad-
His school traditionally has diction by yelling at them
emphasized discipline for or suspending them, it’s
those caught with e-cig- just not going to happen,”
arettes. Punishments be- she said. “They need help,
come increasingly severe treatment, counseling, sup-
with each offense, from in- port, education and under-
school suspensions to out- standing.”
of-school suspensions and, Dr. J. Craig Allen, medi-
eventually, notification of cal director at Rushford, a
law enforcement. mental health treatment
But Manka began thinking center in Meriden, said sus-
about it more as an addic- pending teens for vaping
tion problem, and less of a may be counterproduc-
behavior issue, after seeing tive.
the two players from anoth- “If your solution is to send
er school vaping near their these kids home, what do
bus. “It broke my heart,” you think they are going
said Manka, whose school In this April 11, 2018, file photo, a high school student uses a vaping device near a school campus to be doing at home,” he
is now exploring how to of- in Cambridge, Mass. said. “They are going to be
fer cessation programs for Associated Press taking rips off their Juul all
students caught vaping or day long to kill the time.”
with vaping paraphernalia. cigarettes is painfully thin. schools lump vaping in with California recently shifted Thomas Aberli, the princi-
“We’ve got to figure out Experts say that although tobacco use in applying from suspending students pal at Atherton High School
how we can help these using e-cigarettes appears codes of conduct, treating for a first offense to sending in Louisville, Kentucky, said
kids wean away from bad less harmful over the long offenses similarly. them to a four-hour Satur- it began an intensive anti-
habits that might hurt their run than smoking regular In Connecticut alone, ad- day class on the market- vaping education program
body or their mind or other- cigarettes, that doesn’t ministrators dealt with 2,160 ing and health dangers of this year with the help of
wise create behaviors that mean they’re safe — par- incidents in which students vaping. A second offense the American Associa-
can create habits that will ticularly for youth, young were caught vaping or with results in a one-or-two-day tion of Pediatrics. Teach-
be harmful for the remain- adults, pregnant women or vaping paraphernalia in suspension coupled with ing teens about how vap-
der of their lives,” he said. adults who do not currently violation of school policies several weeks of a more ing companies have been
Schools elsewhere have use tobacco products. during the 2017-18 school intensive six-week counsel- courting them with flavored
been wrestling with how “Studies have shown that year, up from 349 two years ing program that includes products seems to be hav-
to balance discipline with e-cigarette use among earlier. The schools issued parents. ing an effect.
prevention and treatment young people is poten- 1,465 in-school suspensions “I think we are seeing quite “You could tell how angry
in their response to the tially associated with an and 334 out-of-school sus- a bit of success, basing it they were getting with this
soaring numbers of vaping increased risk of progress- pensions, according to the on the reduction this year sense of manipulation,” he
students. ing on to cigarette use and state Education Depart- in both the number of inci- said. “That was really a turn-
Using e-cigarettes, often to vaping cannabis, which ment. dents reported on campus ing point for us in knowing
called vaping, has now has become increasingly Nationwide, some schools and the number of suspen- the best way to approach
overtaken smoking tradi- common in recent years,” have removed bathroom sions,” said Luis Lichtl, the this problem.”
tional cigarettes in popular- said Dr. Renee Goodwin, stall doors or placed moni- district’s assistant superin- Other schools have con-
ity among students, says the a researcher and professor tors outside of restrooms to tendent. tinued to emphasize dis-
Centers for Disease Control of epidemiology at the City check students in and out. “The schools that seem to cipline in crackdowns on
and Prevention. Last year, University of New York and Others have installed hu- be most effective are those teen vaping.
one in five U.S. high school Columbia University who midity detectors that sound that are of course enforc- At the Mattawan Consoli-
students reported vaping studies tobacco and can- an alarm when vapor ing their disciplinary code dated School District just
the previous month, ac- nabis use. clouds are detected. — they can’t do otherwise outside of Kalamazoo,
cording to a CDC survey . Besides nicotine, e-ciga- Lawmakers are beginning — but are using that as Michigan, Principal Tim
E-cigarettes produce an rettes can include other to show similar concerns. the floor and not the ceil- Eastman recently wrote to
aerosol by heating a liquid harmful substances, in- Oklahoma has passed ing,” said Bob Farrace, a parents that students found
that usually contains high cluding heavy metals like legislation to ban vaping spokesman for the National congregating in bathrooms
levels of nicotine — the ad- lead and cancer-causing on school property, and a Association of Secondary or parking lots will be taken
dictive drug in regular cig- agents. The vaping liquid is dozen states have passed School Principals. to the office and searched.
arettes and other tobacco often offered in a variety of legislation to increase the Linda Richter, an expert “Anyone found with vap-
products — flavorings and flavors that appeal to youth age for smoking and vap- on vaping and adolescent ing equipment will face sus-
other chemicals. Users in- and is packaged in a way ing to 21. substance use who works pensions,” Eastman wrote.
hale this aerosol into their that makes them attractive Nevertheless, some school at the New York-based “Although this may seem
lungs; when they exhale, to children. And the long- districts have begun tak- Center on Addiction, sug- extreme, the health and
bystanders often breathe it term health effects, Good- ing a more comprehensive gests that schools provide safety of our students is too
in too. win noted, are unknown. approach by emphasizing information about the important to ignore.”q