Prior to the Covid pandemic there were few cases of vaping in MCPS schools. However, it has become an increasingly serious issue recently and the county is currently discussing what should be done to solve this problem.
It is uncertain what the cause for this rising issue is, but it is evident that something must be done to stop it. The problem is not exclusive to MCPS, but expands country-wide to thousands of high schoolers who have progressively started vaping more and more over the course of the last few years, endangering their own health and, in some cases, risking their own lives.
One of the techniques MCPS has been enforcing to improve this situation is educating students on the dangers of vaping and providing them with resources. A way they teach students about risks of vaping is through health classes. “We’ve been trying to educate students on the dangers of vaping, not only through health classes but also through administrative meetings that we’ve had,” WJ assistant principal Terry Heintze said.
Another solution MCPS has been enforcing in order to prevent students from vaping, at least in school grounds, is closing certain bathrooms. They choose what bathrooms to close depending on the number of staff members there are who can monitor those bathrooms. Several students have expressed their discontent with this solution. “I think closing the bathrooms has not really improved anything. Every time I want to go to the bathroom I have to go to the other side of the school to use it, and people still smoke in the ones that remain open,” WJ junior Fabricio Sobrino said.
Students dislike the bathroom closures because there are days where most of the bathrooms are closed, and students struggle to find an open one. When none of the nearest bathrooms are open, students may find themselves late to their classes.
“I think it’s unfair and inconvenient and people need to stop vaping in school,” WJ sophomore Paul Gomez said.
An alternative proposed solution for this problem has been installing vape detectors across MCPS schools in order to catch students more effectively and being able stop them before they can continue to further worsen their own health. “The county has been installing vape detectors in bathrooms in schools across MCPS, and Walter Johnson will receive these vape detectors very soon,” Heintze said.
Students have mixed solutions about this idea. However, some believe this is the best MCPS can do. “I think putting vape detectors in bathrooms would be good. It would reduce the amount of people trying to vape in school bathrooms,” Sobrino said. “Instead, I feel like the schools should investigate who is vaping and who isn’t. That way they can more easily stop them, since they would know they are.”
Other students believe it would not only be useless, but it could even aggravate the situation. “Putting vape detectors in school bathrooms and catching students in the act doesn’t really have any effects except make those students be more secretive and hide it better,” WJ junior Emnet Getachew said. “There isn’t really anything the school can do more than educate students on the effects of vaping.”
Although students may show resentment and some of the measures MCPS has taken to prevent vaping, their whole purpose is to protect students from the side-effects of vaping and to prevent them from further jeopardizing their health.
Written by Sabrina Solares of Walter Johnson High School
Photo courtesy of Flickr