Detectors in BHS bathrooms alert school if students are vaping. How bad is the problem?

Christopher Butler, The Enterprise
·4 min read

In 2019, 90.2% of high school seniors in Massachusetts thought most of their classmates their age used electronic vapes, according to the Department of Education’s Health and Risk Behaviors of Massachusetts Youth Survey from that year.

In the same survey, 65.6% of high school seniors in the state said they had ever vaped, while 46.3% said they had vaped within the last 30 days. 18.4% said they vape daily.

Since 2019, the last time data from the annual survey was collected, the COVID-19 pandemic forced students in and out of virtual and in-person school and exposed a major mental health crisis within many school districts, including Brockton Public Schools.

Since students returned to schools, vaping continues to be an issue in Brockton, according to BPS superintendent Mike Thomas, who is now on medical leave.

“Vaping in this school is a big problem,” he said at a public forum in July at Brockton High School. “That’s another issue we have to tackle.”

Mayor Robert Sullivan, center, and the Brockton School Committee, along with newly appointed Acting Superintendent of Schools James Cobbs, third from left, held a press conference following an emergency School Committee meeting at the Brockton High School on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023.
Mayor Robert Sullivan, center, and the Brockton School Committee, along with newly appointed Acting Superintendent of Schools James Cobbs, third from left, held a press conference following an emergency School Committee meeting at the Brockton High School on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023.

According to the BPS student handbook, e-cigarettes and vaping devices are prohibited from school property at all times. But students still sneak their vapes into school past Brockton High’s metal detectors and bag-checking security staff.

“Vaping’s out of control,” Thomas said.

What does the data say?

Vaping even exists inside Massachusetts middle schools. According to the 2019 survey, 17.5% of seventh graders and 20.9% of eighth graders said they had used vapes. Those percentages show a major jump from sixth-grade students, 5.7% of whom had used vape products.

Plus, over half of students in the state hold a perception that their peers use vapes. 53% of seventh graders and 68.5% of eighth graders responded that they believe “most their age use electronic vapor products.”

Chart depicting the percent of students across Massachusetts who had used vape products in 2019. Data from the Department of Education Health and Risk Behaviors of Massachusetts Youth Survey in 2019.
Chart depicting the percent of students across Massachusetts who had used vape products in 2019. Data from the Department of Education Health and Risk Behaviors of Massachusetts Youth Survey in 2019.

Outside of Brockton, nearby school districts also struggle with vaping and tobacco use. At Oliver Ames High School in Easton, the 84 Club - a statewide student group - works "to bring awareness to the effects of tobacco use and vapes to the body."

In March, students from Easton Middle School's chapter of the 84 Club participated in Kick Butts Day: Youth Day of Action, where over 200 students from across the state protested outside the State House against youth tobacco use. Students from Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School and Bristol Plymouth Regional Technical School also participated.

Students from Easton Middle School participated in Kick Butts Day: Youth Day of Action, where over 200 students from across the state protested outside the Massachusetts State House against youth tobacco use in March 2023.
Students from Easton Middle School participated in Kick Butts Day: Youth Day of Action, where over 200 students from across the state protested outside the Massachusetts State House against youth tobacco use in March 2023.

According to the DOE's survey, electronic vapes are significantly more common than typical cigarettes. Only 12.9% of high school freshmen had ever smoked cigarettes compared to the 34.7% who had ever used a vape and 22% who used a vape in the last 30 days.

Chart depicting the percent of students across Massachusetts who had ever smoked cigarettes compared to the percent of students who had ever used vape products. Data from the Department of Education Health and Risk Behaviors of Massachusetts Youth Survey in 2019.
Chart depicting the percent of students across Massachusetts who had ever smoked cigarettes compared to the percent of students who had ever used vape products. Data from the Department of Education Health and Risk Behaviors of Massachusetts Youth Survey in 2019.

Is Brockton cracking down on vaping?

Thomas said that Brockton High now has alarms in the building's bathrooms that detect vapor and alert school staff if someone is vaping in the bathrooms.

“We do now have vape detectors installed in our bathrooms which will send an alert to the computers and phones of four teachers and administrators," he said.

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The City of Brockton and BPS received roughly $300,000 in April after settling a national, class action lawsuit against vaping company Juul. The lawsuit alleged that Juul knowingly targeted teenagers in their advertising which led to many health problems for young Americans.

“What they told me about how bad vaping is and how much nicotine a child can induce in a short period of time is alarming," Thomas said.

Brockton Superintendent Mike Thomas speaks at a School Committee meeting held at Brockton High on August 15, 2023, where the members discussed policy changes regarding cell phones and the district's dress code.
Brockton Superintendent Mike Thomas speaks at a School Committee meeting held at Brockton High on August 15, 2023, where the members discussed policy changes regarding cell phones and the district's dress code.

In February, Brockton joined the lawsuit with over 3,000 school districts across the county, stating in the lawsuit that:

“JUUL products are rampant in the nation’s schools, with the percentage of 12th graders who reported consuming nicotine almost doubling between 2017 and 2018. In 2019, more than five million middle and high school students reported current use of e-cigarettes, including more than one in every four high schoolers."

"Consistent with this national trend, youth e-cigarette consumption rates in Brockton Public Schools and City of Brockton continue to climb," the complaint said.

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Smoking hits close to home

Next door to Brockton High School on Forest Avenue is Cigar & More, a smoke shop that sells and delivers tobacco products. Around the corner on Belmont Street is another tobacco store Go Smoke Shop.

According to the DOE's survey from 2019, 35.2% of Massachusetts students lived with someone who smoked.

"This is an issue, this is a community issue," Thomas said.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Vaping in Brockton High post-pandemic still an issue, says admin