“When you are sitting in school bored then after class I want go to the bathroom to get a little buzz so I feel better,” said a junior.

The national average for high schoolers vaping is in the millions and Grandview is definitely contributing to this average. Students in all grades at Grandview are involved in underage and prohibited use of nicotine products on school grounds.

Following last year, adults at Grandview are unsure if vaping on school grounds has decreased or increased. When multiple staff members were interviewed, some have seen a decrease and others saying they have seen an increase. So how are Grandview students and parents supposed to know if this school problem can be controlled?

“The numbers at this time, this year compared to last year, are less,” said our Assistant Principal Mrs.Ulitzky.

But then we have security guards like Debbie Romero who deal with this problem head on while catching the students vaping who say, “No, it has increased.”

Between interviews with security guards Debbie Romero and Paul Proctor, both stated that the leading place they catch students vaping is in our Grandview bathrooms. Following the bathrooms, the Grandview parking lot is the second most popular spot for students vaping. Within the first four weeks of the 2018-19 school year at least 22 students have been caught on school premises.

Even with the vaping policy being explicitly stated during all class meetings at the beginning of the year, seniors, juniors, and sophomores were asked if they are afraid of getting caught vaping at school, the majority said, “Nope,” “Not really, I don’t think I’m gonna get caught,” and “I’m pretty good at hiding it.”

“When you are sitting in school bored then after class I want go to the bathroom to get a little buzz so I feel better,” said a junior. 

If students aren’t afraid of getting caught vaping on school grounds then is this district really doing enough to stop this problem in school? The act of being afraid of getting caught is what students need to make them quit this illegal action on school grounds.

“Anything like this that comes up in life you just want to educate, educate, educate,” said Mrs.Ulitzky.

The fact that students can’t wait until they get home to vape instead of making it an illegal act at Grandview is something that needs to be confronted.

Students say they need to vape to make them feel better or they crave those little buzzes to keep them going through their school day.

Students at Grandview seem to be dependent on these devices that most can’t even buy legally. So how are students under the age of eighteen obtaining these nicotine products?

“Gas stations don’t care,” said an anonymous sophomore.

“I have this one guy who never ID’s me,” said an anonymous junior.

The fact that minors are able to receive vaping devices without parent permission is giving them more options to bring these devices onto school grounds. Grandview alone can’t stop this world wide problem in high schools, but if the companies who are selling these products illegally to minors could be contained then maybe this problem would slowly fade.

“Monkey see monkey do,” said Mrs.Ulitzky and this is something so true to our school today. 

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