About 7.8 percent of high schoolers and 3.8 percent of middle school students are reported to currently be users of e-cigarettes in the United States, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The vaping epidemic reaches Encinal High School, where staff members and students have expressed concerns. Some argue that what has fueled this epidemic is students’ lack of awareness of the toll vaping takes on their health.
“I think it’s something they’re gonna regret in the future,” biology teacher Olszewski-Jubeirer said. “I know some students think it’s safe, but people said the same about cigarettes, and now we know they are really bad for you.”
Staff members have overwhelmingly described their interactions with students who’ve shown evidence of vaping as “super anxious.”
“I think that vaping with these youngsters is a waste of time,” school nurse Susan Francis said. “They should not vape. I’ve seen students come in after a weekend of heavy vaping. When they come in they’re tired and lethargic. They act very peculiarly, and when they don’t have access to their vape, they’re very rude, and very grouchy.”
The dangers of vaping are still being studied by medical professionals all around the world. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found the use of nicotine in teenagers can harm parts of the adolescent brain which control attention, learning, mood, and impulse control. Introducing harmful chemicals like nicotine into the teenage body can hinder brain development.
“Vaping has had a big effect on mental health,” student counselor Destiny Smith said. “It enhances anxiety and depression and it also is linked to psychosis, which is when students are kind of out of touch with reality. It just has a huge effect on mental health and is super unhealthy for you.”
Along with the physical and mental damages vaping has on the bodies of individual students, it also poses serious problems for the entirety of Encinal High School. The school can be punished for false fire alarms going off, which are often triggered by students vaping on campus. “The school is fined $845 each time,” Vice Principal Tim Zolezzi said. Because of this, the false alarms caused by vaping in the bathrooms have been a financial burden on the school in recent years.
And in the aftermath, “when the fire alarm goes off we can tell which bathroom set [it] off,” Zolezzi said. “And we have a camera on every bathroom, so anyone who is in the bathroom when the alarm goes off gets searched. Most of the time we find something on these students, and then they have disciplinary follow-up as a result.”
Many find the most common reason for middle and high school students currently using e-cigarettes is feeling “anxious, sad, or depressed.” The CDC discovered that nicotine addiction or withdrawal can contribute to these feelings or make them worse. Youth may initially use tobacco products to relieve their symptoms, which can lead to a cycle of nicotine addiction.
“Take a look at those pictures of the lungs and what they look like later,” school nurse Susan Francis said. “Think about how much time students spend seeking out vape cartridges, seeking out the battery, just looking for your vape, that time could have been utilized in a much more positive manner. Don’t vape.”
