How does vaping affect school?

It feels like every other week the fire alarm goes off due to someone vaping in the bathrooms. Many students call this a vape drill.

The good news is that when there is a vape drill, it counts as our required monthly fire drill. This is helpful because it means we don’t miss out on additional class time from both drills and false alarms.

These vape drills have gotten annoying, especially when it’s raining, during a class you like, during lunch or before school, when you’re taking tests or when you’re trying to make up work. Some people also chose to wander around after the drill, talking with friends instead of going straight to class or wherever they are supposed to be. 

This is annoying to teachers because they are interrupted from teaching, and then when students don’t come back to class, those students are going to fall behind, as they’re missing valuable instructional time. Some teachers could be giving a test when it goes off, and then students could go look up the answers and cheat to get a good score. 

“Teachers say youth vaping is impacting their ability to educate students because of frequent class interruptions, decreased student focus and few resources to help them address the problem,” according to Truth Initiative.

During lunch when it goes off, sometimes the lunch period is extended, but often the time is not made up, and students lose time to eat. Even when lunch is extended, the delay the vape drills cause cuts into class time. If it happens during A lunch, then B lunch people have to wait longer for lunch. When it happens during B lunch, then it cuts into fourth period. 

Vaping also has a negative effect on students’ mental health, attention span, learning and impulse control. 

So why do teens vape? Well, let’s look at some of the most common reasons. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, 53% of teens said they wanted to experiment, 37.2% said it was because of taste, 23.5% said boredom, 22.4% said to have a good time and 21.6% said to relax. There is also a social aspect to the practice; some teens vape because they see friends or a parent do it.

“Users, who are often young people, quickly become addicted – and the data show more middle and high school students are using vapes now than they did just a year ago,” writes contributor Grace Hagerman from the National Education Association.

This has become a big problem in schools, a problem that will be difficult to fix. There are some things that teens can do to help themselves quit. Teens can make a plan to ease off of the vape instead of going cold turkey and having a friend or parent to help encourage them can also help a lot. There are also other nicotine products that many people use to help quit vaping or cigarettes, some examples being nicotine patches or nicotine gum.

We shouldn’t just punish or judge people for vaping, especially teens, as there are many different reasons why they do so. Instead of questioning them we should try to help. If you know someone who vapes, one of the most important things you can do is be patient with them and not nag. If you struggle with vaping and want to stop, there are many different resources you can use. Truth Initiative is a good place to go for help.