Health officials say they’re investigating reports of six Ohioans who vape who experienced breathing illnesses. DELAWARE, Ohio — The Olentangy Local School District is cracking down on kids who vape. School leaders said it’s becoming a huge problem across the district so much so that even kids as young as elementary school are doing it.
"That was probably my biggest shock as an educator that we had elementary students that did this last year,” said the district’s Chief of Administrative Services Randy Wright.
The district told us more students are vaping every year. In fact, according to the FDA last fall high schoolers who vape jumped 78-percent across the country and there was a 48-percent increase among middle school students. A lot of It is happening in the bathrooms.
“The concerns continued to come, and we tried to come up with a way to monitor bathrooms,” said Wright.
Olentangy School District is one of the first district's in Ohio to look into a new, smart, technology called “HALO.”
“They detect the chemical compounds that are in a vape device. So, it’s not the cloud itself, they detect the chemicals that are dispersed in the air, and they will send a notification to our administrators,” Wright stated.
Wright said one of the high schools tested it out last year but would not say which one. He did state that they have seen positive results from using it.
“These devices are tamper-resistant, and so they do set off an alarm,” he said.
That’s why the district wants the board to approve $65,000 to buy 68 more vape detectors and install them in all the bathrooms in their four high schools and STEM Academy School. Parents love the idea.
“I think that’s a wonderful idea. I think we should’ve done it a long time ago,” said Amber Kurzk who is a parent of a 12-year-old.
Another parent, Jazmine Froehlich said, “I think it would be a good idea for them, just to get it out of the schools and away from the little ones.”
These vape detectors can even detect loud sounds if students are fighting. If students are caught vaping, they could face an automatic 3-day suspension for the first offense.
“We want to send a message that this is a serious problem here,” said Wright.
School board members will be meeting on September 12th to vote on the vaping detectors. If it’s approved, Wright said the detectors will be installed at all their high schools as quickly as Thanksgiving.
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