According to a study done by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 1.63 million students vaped in 2024, including 410,000 middle schoolers and 1.21 million high schoolers. Many students develop a serious addiction, with 30% of those students reporting vaping every single day.
“When I became an administrator [vaping] was just being introduced, so there weren’t a whole lot of people doing it,” Facilities Associate Principal Pedro Cavazos said, “but year after year I have seen it multiply exponentially.”
Vaping continues to grow increasingly available to the general public. Between 2019 and 2023, e-cigarette unit sales grew 47%.
“E-cigarettes are supposed to be sold to ages 18 and up, but I have heard from students that have been caught that they’re able to buy them at some stores and gas stations,” Mr. Cavazos said, “and that we need to pay attention to students selling them on campus.”
Students who vape flock to flavored vapes where chemicals like diacetyl, which causes popcorn lungs, can be found. Roughly 92% of e-cigarettes contain one of those types of chemicals.
“The students that are doing this do not realize the harm it does to their body and how quickly it develops,” Mr. Cavazos said. “I’ve seen reports where people are coughing up blood as quickly as three years.”
The school’s system shows 22 incidents of students being caught with vape pens this year. Officer Edric Ruffin walks the boys’ bathrooms daily because of the high level of incidents reported in the restrooms.
“There’s always some type of nonsense going on in the bathrooms,” Officer Ruffin said. “I frequently come across both nicotine and THC vape pens.”
THC stands for tetrahydrocannabinol, an illegal drug found in certain vape pens. Most vapes contain nicotine, which is considered legal in Texas for anyone over the age of 21.
“There’s been more acceptance, not just in school but in the community, with drugs like THC and marijuana,” Officer Ruffin said. “People accept it as natural, but nobody knows what’s actually in THC vape pens.”
While the consequences for nicotine vapes stay within the school, the officers file criminal charges for paraphernalia, a class C misdemeanor charge to be handled in justice court. However, they can send the vape to a lab or use the presumptive tests they carry to file a felony charge for possession.
“Even without catching them, they just walk in the halls and I can identify that there’s a level of intoxication,” Officer Ruffin said. “I call them zombies.”
Teachers also realize the strong presence of vaping in schools. Head Volleyball Coach Amanda Shingleton believes it is vital for students to be educated on the health risks they take on when they choose to pick up a vape.
“Life is all about choices,” Coach Shingleton said. “Unfortunately, I feel students are often misinformed or ignore the health risks associated with vaping based on current research.”
A study from the National Library of Medicine shows that vaping in adolescence elicits long-term changes in brain and behavior that last through adulthood, as parts of the brain are still in developmental stages. Adolescent vaping increases the likelihood of future substance use and mental health issues as adults.
“I feel that it’s important to provide accurate health resources to educate our students about the physical and mental or emotional health risks that they are susceptible to,” Coach Shingleton said.
In a survey done by the National Institutes of Health, 60% of respondents reported experiencing vaping for the first time because of a friend. This suggests peer pressure as one of the main causes of vaping spreading throughout schools.
“We need to teach communication and refusal strategies to help reduce the threat of peer pressure or ‘fitting in’ so that students have the confidence to make smart, healthy choices for an addiction-free future,” Coach Shingleton said.
With peer pressure being a huge factor contributing to vaping in schools, the administration focuses on talking with parents and students about the issue of vaping.
“Unfortunately, we’re still reactive, so we have to depend on people telling us things to know when to go and check the places it’s being reported in,” Mr. Cavazos said. “Our best line of defense is students being proactive and letting us know when things are happening.”
