This archive report was first published on 21 September 2019.
At School, 'Everyone Vapes,' and Adults Are in Crisis Mode ¶
As the vaping crisis deepens, with at least 530 people sickened and eight dead, high schools are racing to give teenagers a new, urgent message: Vaping can be deadly.
At Crystal Lake Central High School in Illinois, administrators have tried installing sensors to detect vaping in bathrooms and locker rooms. Students caught with vape devices face a $50 fine and a three-day suspension.
But despite these efforts, vaping remains a widespread problem at the school. Students told The New York Times that vaping devices are easily obtained, and refill cartridges with THC oil, known as carts, are sold for $20 apiece.
Opportunities to vape discreetly are everywhere, they said — in an empty hallway, a bathroom stall or the back row of a classroom where a teacher cannot possibly monitor every student’s move.
“It’s rare to find someone who doesn’t do it,” said Alexis Padilla, 16, a junior. “You can’t go on social media without someone’s videos of them doing it.”
Health officials suspect that vaping-related illnesses and deaths are underreported, and that doctors have only recently begun to connect vaping to mysterious lung ailments.
And educators said they were beginning to grapple with the reality that a new generation of American teenagers, one that would be loath to pick up cigarettes, is now addicted to nicotine through vaping.
“The kids in our school are like any other school,” said Steve Greiner, student services coordinator. “People are really starting to realize, ‘Holy cow, this was seen as the answer to our prayers to get people off cigarettes.’ Now it’s turned into this.”
