“Last year- the numbers doubled from the year before.”

This statistic about the number of vape infractions from two years ago to last year was delivered by assistant principal Tessa Dumbacher. If you are intrigued about the growth in numbers about vape violations, here are the full details:

2017-2018: 72 vape violations.

2018-2019: 209 vape violations.

Dumbacher had some opinions about the matter and what the school should focus more on doing to minimize this problem. 

According to her, students are not educated enough about vaping.

“Personally, I don’t think [students] really know what all vaping does to you,” she said. “Cigarettes have been around so long that we know the dangers of them, but with vapes, we still don’t know the full effect. I don’t think they know the long-term consequences and I don’t think they will until years down the road.” 

Principal Tim Isaacs expressed the same idea more bluntly.

“Kids have gotten extremely stupid about doing their research,” he said. “You don’t know what you’re putting in your body. Some people have no idea what’s in that Juul.” 

Dumbacher also thinks the punishments for vaping should be changed.

“I feel like instead of us just giving Saturday school or something like that, we should make them go through this vape education class,” Dumbacher said.

A vape affect education class is a new idea for the school, and something never tried at Central.

 If you’re wondering what the class would look like, Dumbacher explained. 

“It’s an online thing, and it would make them learn about [vaping] and then take a quiz at the end,” she said. 

Principal Tim Isaacs said some changes have already been made this year concerning the handling of vaping infractions.

“One of the changes we made this year, is that when the letter goes home telling the parents I caught their child vaping, it’s going to have a disclaimer at the bottom saying parents have 30 days to come pick that vape up, and if it’s still here after 30 days, it’s going in the garbage,” Isaacs said.

Isaacs is also concerned about the marketing techniques of the e-cigarette companies.

 “Companies are intentionally marketing a lie, or partial truth, that this helps people get off cigarettes,” Isaacs said. “It can help some people get off cigarettes, and to some small extent, vaping is a little better than cigarettes, but only if you’re a pack-a-day smoker.” 

On Aug. 23, a medical release out of the state of Illinois came out describing what might be the first death in the U.S. tied to vaping. 

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, “A person who recently vaped died after being hospitalized with ‘severe respiratory illness.’. The agency didn’t give any other information about the patient, including a name or where the person lived.”

Melaney Arnold, an agency spokeswoman, said- “The death is the first in the states that could be linked to vaping.” The release also says the number of people who have experienced respiratory illness after vaping doubled to 22 in the past week. (Published August 23, 2019)