Image courtesy of https://vaping360.com/
The Mishicot School District is integrating “vape education” in their schools. Superintendent and High School Principal Dr. Paul Orlich told us “What really brought it to life this year is watching the news this summer,” referring to the influx of lung disease cases among vapers.
Orlich says they are working with VapeEducate LLC-a leader in online vape education to provide a five-hour course for all seventh and ninth grade students with a goal to provide this for other grade levels in the 2020-21 school year. “The program covers five topics,” Orlich explained. “It’s gonna educate students on the history of the e-cigarette industry. What are the health risks? What marketing tactics are specifically used by the vape industry to draw youth toward it? Vaping marijuana, and then to provide them information on how to handle social situations that they may encounter.”
According to the U.S. Surgeon General teen vaping has reached epidemic proportions. Recent findings from the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research substantiates that from 2017 to 2018 increases in vaping were the largest ever recorded in the past 43 years for any adolescent substance use including multiple hospitalizations.
Seehafer News asked Dr. Orlich whether legislators should take action to ban all vaping paraphernalia. He responded by saying “Young people, back in my day, saw the Marlboro ads and thought smoking was cool. Taking that advertising away helped, and I think in the long run our legislators need to do something.”
School policy prohibits all students from vaping on school grounds. If caught, a student, regardless of grade will be required to complete the educational course and be subject to an out of school Suspension of no more than three days. The local educator adds “As an educational institution we owe it to our students to provide information about the dangers of vaping rather than just consequences for vaping in school.”
