Underage vaping is a troubling trend across the nation. Daily Local News reports that Avon Grove High School in Chester County, Pennsylvania is cracking down, installing sensors in all restrooms after a number of students were suspended for vaping.
“We have had an increase in policy violators this year due to vaping,” Scott DeShong, Avon Grove High School principal, told the outlet. “It’s something that wasn’t a problem a year ago.”
Avon Grove is following in the steps of Phoenixville High School to become the second high school in the county to install vaping sensors in all of its restrooms.
M. Christopher Marchese, superintendent of the Avon Grove School District, told Daily Local News that 17 vaping sensors, which were ordered last week, should be installed in the next couple of weeks.
“The issue of vaping, I don’t think it’s just an Avon Grove issue. I think it’s an issue all school districts in Chester County are dealing with right now. I think once (the sensors) are installed, this won’t be happening as frequently as it is happening now.”
“The issue of vaping, I don’t think it’s just an Avon Grove issue,” Marchese explained to the outlet. “I think it’s an issue all school districts in Chester County are dealing with right now. I think once (the sensors) are installed, this won’t be happening as frequently as it is happening now.”
E-cigarette use has jumped 900 percent among high school students from 2011 to 2015, according to a recent report from the U.S. Surgeon General. The U.S. Surgeon General also found that one in five high school students reported using e-cigarettes in the past month.
Complicating detection is the odorless nature of vaping and the use of inconspicuous devices such as the popular one from JUUL that resembles a USB stick, the outlet adds.
A local vendor of vaping products, Top Grade Vapor owner Bill Nichols, agrees with Avon Grove’s zero-tolerance approach.
“Schools have to do something about it,” Nichols said to Daily Local News. “Schools are a tobacco-free zone.”
When bathroom sensors catch a whiff of e-cigarette vapors, an administrator receives a smartphone alert that provides location information for a prompt response.
