It might not be popular to smoke cigarettes anymore, but nicotine continues to find its way into the lungs of America’s youth, and Jefferson High School and Boulder Elementary are not immune to the latest craze created by the tobacco industry: vaping, or using an electronic device that simulates tobacco smoking.
At the April 18 Jefferson High school board meeting, principal Mike Moodry said he’s confiscated 22 vaping devices on campus this school year (12 in the last three months alone). He’s also seen 89 total discipline events compared to 53 last year, many of which were directly related to vaping.
“It’s a whole new fad,” he said. “It reminds me of the movies from the 50s and 60s when the kids are outside smoking, like in ‘Grease.’ We are back to that…except with vaping. It’s an epidemic.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaping (also known as e-cigarettes), has been the most commonly used tobacco product among U.S. youth since 2014, and Moodry said for the last few years usage has been significantly higher. In hopes to prevent the problem from worsening further, Moodry is stiffening the punishments, as he says, by hitting the perpetrators “where it hurts.”
For a first offense, a student caught vaping losing off-campus lunch privileges for a month; for a second offense, the student loses this privilege for 75 days; and, for a third offense, the student loses off-campus lunch privileges for the rest of the school year. This is just the beginning of the punishment.
Moodry is also working with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office on ticketing students for each infraction. These tickets, Moodry said, cost the culprit up to $185.
Offenses also require students to participate in the “My Life, My Quit New Youth Quit Program,” serve up to 20 hours of community service and have a meeting with the Activity Council that could potentially result in removal of all extracurricular activities for the remainder of the student’s high school career.
Moodry has also taken matters into his own hands by utilizing a metal detector on vaping suspects.
“It’s been effective,” he said, “but as soon as one student finds out the whole school knows about this method, and then they find other creative ways of hiding the vapes. What we’ve seen lately is students hiding their vaping devices in cars after getting off the bus. They keep finding new ways and new places, be it in vehicles, classrooms or bathrooms. It’s a cat-and-mouse game.”
Moodry said he is not alone in this predicament, as other high school principals around the state – and the nation for that matter – have shared similar struggles. In Townsend, the school recently purchased vape detectors, a prevention method Jefferson High is also considering.
Jefferson County Public Health School Nurse Erin Ritchie has applied for a $20,000 Tobacco Cessation grant to fund vape detectors for both Jefferson High and Boulder Elementary.
“This grant would cover all costs for at least one detector in each bathroom and locker room,” Ritchie said. “Some of the money would also go toward training for myself and the other school nurse, Kaylee Padmos.”
Ritchie said the training is called Intervention for Nicotine Dependence: Education, Prevention, Tobacco and Health (INDEPTH), an educational program started by the American Lung Association that offers an alternative to suspensions for citations for students and gives students the tools to rid themselves of nicotine dependence.
“If we get trained up maybe we can offer this program to the students instead of punishing them,” Ritchie said. “I plan to take this training next summer and start offering it as an option for all Jefferson County schools in the fall.”
Ritchie wants to do as much as she can to prevent this issue from getting worse and to get students help if they are dealing with addiction. Boulder Elementary Principal/Superintendent Jeff Elliott also is trying to find new ways to combat this concerning trend. He said students are getting started on e-cigarettes as early as fifth grade.
“We’ve had four kids suspended at least part-time for some sort of vaping,” Elliott said, “and we had one little girl who got caught twice and said she needed some help, so we gave her some resources.”
According to the 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 19% of middle school students have used a vape, and 44% of high school students have used a vape. Elliott said he considers these statistics alarming, and he said many students agree. As a result, prevention has become a priority at both Jefferson High and Boulder Elementary. The Boulder Elementary student council has addressed the issue, as has 21st Century Consortium Director Rochelle Hesford by implementing the statewide reACT program for grades six through eight. This club meets on Wednesdays to advocate against tobacco use.
Jefferson County Prevention Specialist Barb Reiter has also been instrumental in educating the students about the dangers of vaping.
“One thing [Reiter] has done is educate parents and educate children on how vaping can negatively affect brain development,” Elliott said. “That’s my fear, too, that these kids are getting their hands on these [e-cigarettes] and it’s affecting them at such a developmental age that it could affect them the rest of their lives. So our goal is to just educate, educate, educate, whether it’s parents or kids. We need them to know this is not safe.”
Reiter said, although vaping is more and more of a concern, she’s encouraged by so many in the community stepping up to help raise awareness on its addictive nature. There are many resources out there, she said, but what matters most is getting people involved to spread the word, especially parents and peers. She likes what she’s seeing.
“We are all in this together,” she said.
Other Business from April 18 JHS school board meeting
• Erik Wilkerson gave an update on the Dick Anderson construction project, sharing that the highly anticipated expansion was again delayed due to weather.
“We haven’t had a groundbreaking,” Wilkerson said, “but we’ve had asphalt tearing-upping.”
“Well, it’s like [JHS School Board Trustee] Buster [Bullock] said, the ground-breaking isn’t as important as the ribbon-cutting,” added JHS School Board Chair Cami Robson. Dick Anderson Construction Project Manager Tim Tholt said at the meeting that the plan is to get rolling on the groundbreaking as soon as possible.
• Contract renewals were an agenda item this month. Trustees and school administration encouraged faculty and coaches to attend the meeting and be present as their respective names were called. Motions were made to accept tenured and non-tenured teachers, as well as both coaches and assistant coaches.
“A lot of my reason for this is I’ve been sitting here for three years and I don’t think I could put a face to half of you,” Bullock said at the meeting. “I think that’s terrible. We’re sitting here as your employer and can’t put a face to you. I’m glad you’re all here, and it’s good to see you here not as a group but as individuals, and I think you should be treated as individuals. I think you all do a good job for all of us and satisfy our administration.”
Jefferson High math teacher Marryanne McMahon thanked Bullock and the board but also invited the board to come to her classroom and into the classrooms of her fellow teachers.
“I’ve taught at three schools and this one by far celebrates the kids as individuals the most,” she said. “You’ll really love to see our kids and teachers in action.”
