LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A recent study by the Kentucky Department of Education reports nearly half of high schoolers and a quarter of middle schoolers have tried vaping. School leaders say they are now dealing with how to address student vape usage in their schools.
In the Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted in 2021, 2,178 high schoolers and 1,300 middle schoolers self-reported having tried vaping.
The small sample is in line with the nationwide trend that shows more young people are using vaping and electronic cigarette products. More than 2.5 million students responded in a survey by the CDC saying they vaped in the last 30 days. Many used daily.
What's Happening:
"It's definitely become very normalized," said Trinity Kays, a senior at Paul Lawrence Dunbar and Editor-In-Chief of PLD Lamplighter. "Freshman year it definitely wasn't as big of a problem as it is now. Now you walk into a bathroom and you're waiting like 10 minutes before you can actually use it because people are in the stalls vaping."
Because they can be odorless and small, Jon Akers, Executive Director of the Kentucky Center for School Safety says it has been a challenge to mitigate.
"You asked me the question what's the most pressing issue right now, we can't get a handle on the vaping situation," said Akers.
What's Being Done:
Schools nationwide have resorted to installing vape detectors. Oldham County Schools and Woodford County Schools are the latest in Kentucky to share they've implemented a pilot.
"We are a unique school here, we were able to put those into our bathrooms and able to monitor those a little more closely than a larger school would do so," said Officer Michael Fortney, School Resource Officer for Safe Harbor Academy.
Fortney says since their implementation over the summer, he has noticed a decrease in confiscations and behavioral problems associated.
Principal Logan Culbertson says they realized it was a safety issue schools would need to be a part of addressing and speaking out on. While Safe Harbor is an alternative school, he says the middle and high schools were seeing increases in vaping as well.
We want to make sure that hey, if this is going on in schools that we're addressing it, but also that we're having the conversation to figure out what we can do to support those choices," said Culbertson.
Because student vaping is a relatively new issue, they are still in the process of learning how to best support students. So far, they've found focusing on education and providing resources
to families has helped.
"As educators, we want to keep our students, our young adults and kids safe first and foremost and part of that- that educational process is we want to make sure that the safety part also means you're being healthy. And so, we want to make sure that we're educating our young adults on their choices, but also the repercussions for making those choices," said Culbertson. "We try to use anytime when a student is found with a vape on their person, as an educational opportunity. And so we start that conversation with obviously the confiscation and the collaboration and communication with the family. Because it's a family in school partnership to really impact change.
Legal Challenges:
Just this week Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced Kentucky will get around $14 million of a larger settlement with e-cigarette company "Juul" over their marketing and sales practices targeting children.
Several Kentucky Schools also joined a class action lawsuit suing Juul in 2019.
Tracking Vape Use in Schools:
So far, no schools LEX 18 asked provided any statistics on vape usage at the school or the number of confiscated vapes. Many said they did not track it. So, we were not able to do an accurate review of vape usage over the years in Kentucky schools.
Fayette County Schools said they track tobacco usage and drug use, but that number also includes regular cigarettes, and chew.
Woodford County Schools referred us to the Kentucky School Report Card, which only showed "Behavior events" with categories for drugs and tobacco but not "vaping or e-cigarettes".
Much of the data available comes from surveys, which begs the question, should there be more accessible public data on student vaping?
