MOULTRIE – Colquitt County School System has seen little decline in underage electric cigarette offenses since it declared war on “vaping” in November of last year.
“As of now, we haven’t seen a serious decline. We just did some numbers. From August to November 30, we averaged 1.6 incidences per day of use of an electronic smoking device be it either drugs or nicotine. From there, to February 12, is when I took this, we’re now at 1.5 incidences per day,” Dan Chappuis, Colquitt County High School principal, told the school board at Monday night’s meeting.
The school district moved against electronic smoking devices following an incident last year in which a Colquitt County High School student needed to have Narcan, a drug used to treat a narcotic overdose, after using one of the devices.
“Unfortunately, vaping is an epidemic across our country,” Chappuis told the Colquitt County Board of Education at the board’s work session in November, when the incident was reported to them.
Also, at the November meeting, Chappuis set forth a proposal to change the school’s discipline policy to add a law enforcement action for possessing an electronic smoking device or drugs.
“If any student is found with an electronic smoking device at school, whether it has drugs or just nicotine, they will be charged with Prohibited Acts and the student and parent will have to appear in court. Students who are 17 and older will be taken to the Colquitt County Jail,” Chappuis said.
It is illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to possess an electronic smoking device.
At Monday’s meeting, Chappuis said that he has been following through with law enforcement and the first students who were charged are starting to appear in court.
“So, those consequences are starting to take place that are outside of school,” he said.
Chappuis said that they have had 81 students charged since November, and out of those, only one repeat offender.
“So, we’re hoping that they’re learning their lesson. They’re not going to continue this behavior,” he said.
He also said that they were implementing advisement lessons every Friday, sending out materials to the teachers and have also teamed up with Colquitt Regional Medical Center to have them assist with the education about electronic cigarettes.
He said that there was a large meeting with all of the school staff, law enforcement, the head pulmonologist, several nurses and the hospital’s chief of staff. They were working on developing educational materials that look at it from the preventive side and address some of the addiction that’s occurring.
“As we’re talking to students. And like I said, this thing knows no demographic.There’s no socio-economic group. It’s across the board. We try to talk to different groups of students. Try to figure out what is causing this and one of the underlying themes is that people are just addicted to it and that’s why they continue to bring it to school,” Chappuis said.
He said that’s where they would be working with the hospital and other medical professionals.
He said that all of the administrators had just gone through training and the schools all have Narcan onhand.
“Hopefully, we never have to use it again but it’s there and ready in the event that we do,” he said.
Chappuis said that he hoped the students who’ve had to appear in court will help get the word out that “this was serious” and there would start to be a decline in numbers of incidences.