This trend could kill you

Within the past few months, new incidents of severe lung illnesses and even death related to vaping have occured.

School Nurse Jamie Mountain is troubled by the statistics. She cited the Virginia Department of Health when expressing her concern: “As of today, 33 cases [of vaping related illness] have been reported in Virginia, ranging in age from 18 to 38 years old; 76% are male. As of September 24th, 805 cases, including 12 other deaths, have been reported in the United States.”

Vaping is becoming more prevalent in our community, but incidents on school grounds are comparatively low.

“The number of incidents at Salem are significantly lower than some of the other VBCPS high schools,” said Assistant Principal Jairo Padilla.

In order to learn how to handle this new epidemic, it is important to understand why students may start vaping in the first place.

“I used to vape a whole lot mainly because of how stressed I was,” said a senior who prefers to remain anonymous and will be referred to as Joyce. “I’ve tried cigarettes and weed, but I never liked the lingering smell or how it would make my mouth really dry. I enjoy vaping because of all the different flavors you can get and even the different types of clouds you could make.”

Even with the recent news of vape users contracting lung illness and some even dying after vaping, there are still students who choose to continue vaping.

“At first I didn’t think it could hurt me as much because of the different amounts of nicotine,” said Joyce. “Though the more I think of it, it’s gonna hurt me either way.”

The state of Virginia has changed the law in order to help curb underage usage of tobacco and nicotine products. In order to purchase these types of products, a person must now be twenty-one years old instead of eighteen. However, this has not stopped teens from still obtaining vapes and pods.

“I got my vape from my friend’s older brother. We were all really close and I always thought of him as a really cool guy in general,” said Joyce.

Schools have begun to take action on this issue to prevent vaping on school grounds and to provide more counseling services so students have a healthier way to handle stress and trauma.

“We have increased security patrols, increased education through the Nurse’s Office, Health/PE courses and the Substance Abuse Intervention Program for repeat offenders,” said Padilla. “As a deterrent, the school division has also increased consequences though the Student Code of Conduct.”

To help reduce vaping among teens, students can work with administration and guidance to help their friends who are struggling with addiction get help.

“We can’t do it alone, we need everyone’s help, including the student body,” said Padilla. “We have encouraged students to report vaping on school grounds and have seen steady results.”

*Student’s name has been changed to maintain anonymity