News
LPS: No e-cigarettes in school
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Lincoln Journal-Star
Most high school students wouldn't consider lighting a cigarette in class, but many of them don't seem to have the same hesitation about puffing on e-cigarettes at their desks.
“We didn't include it in the student information packet when we put it together this year,” said East High Principal Sue Cassata. “We underestimated the problem it would be for students.”
The problem: A growing number of students are inhaling e-cigarettes — battery-powered devices that typically dispense nicotine vapors and other additives — in the hallways, bathrooms and classrooms.
Some students assume e-cigarettes don't fall under the same prohibitions as traditional tobacco products.
They assume wrong.
At least two high schools have told parents it's not OK, and now, district officials have drafted letters for principals to share with parents.
“I think it clearly falls under existing (student) codes,” said Southeast Principal Brent Toalson, who sent an electronic message home to parents clarifying the rules.
East High posted a similar notice on its website and made an announcement to students.
LPS officials say e-cigarettes violate two sections in their policies dealing with student behavior. One prohibits the use or possession of “tobacco, narcotics, drugs, controlled substances, inhalants” and includes “being impaired by reason of the abuse of any material used as a stimulant.” The other prohibits all imitations represented to be alcohol, narcotics, drugs, controlled substances or inhalants.
Toalson said nicotine falls under the prohibition of using “mind-altering drugs,” and the devices fall under a prohibition of nuisances.
Often — but not always — the devices emit vapor that includes nicotine. They also come in a variety of flavors, making them especially attractive to young people. And administrators say they have heard that THC — the active ingredient in marijuana — can be put into the vapor, although they have not seen that at schools.
It's uncharted territory with the largely unregulated devices, and unlike traditional tobacco products, they are not illegal for people younger than 18 to purchase.
That could change.
The Legislature's General Affairs Committee will discuss prohibiting the sale of e-cigarettes to minors at an interim hearing set for Friday at the Capitol.
And while neither the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the FDA regulate e-cigarettes, the CDC took the unusual step last month of publishing study findings on e-cigarette use by minors in a format generally reserved for urgent matters such as food-borne epidemics.
That study showed the percentage of middle and high school students who use e-cigarettes more than doubled from 2011 to 2012.
And while LPS officials haven't been keeping tabs on the number of students using e-cigarettes, they say they have noticed a considerable increase this year.
The CDC and FDA haven't provided guidance about possible health concerns, but the use of nicotine by young people certainly is a concern, said Charlotte Burke, a division manager for health promotion and outreach with Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department.
“From a Health Department standpoint, we are still looking at what is going on,” she said.
But LPS officials have drawn a line in the sand: The devices at the very least represent a tobacco product and have no place in school.
“The bottom line is they are not good for kids and they're not good in school. We wanted to make sure that was clearly communicated,” Toalson said.
Penalties for violating the rules vary depending on the offense but can include out-of-school suspension.
