I don't need to tell you that vaping is on the rise — and, according to recent headlines, being linked to some serious health risks. But high school administrators, who are dealing with teen vaping obsession on a near-constant basis, are also struggling with how to police no-vaping policies in school. Wilson High School in Alabama is in hot water after the principal decided to remove several stall doors in the boys' bathroom to prevent vaping.
The drastic measure comes just weeks after a student passed out in a bathroom stall from vaping, and Principal Gary Horton decided enough was enough.
According to WAFF, the issue has become a real problem at the Florence, Alabama school, where teachers say students constantly sneak off to vape in secret. So much so, in fact, that it's becoming somewhat of a smelly nuisance in addition to the health risks it poses.
No matter what the school does, the problem is only getting worse, which is why Horton turned to the temporary measure.
Still, not all parents (or kids, for that matter) are happy about it.
“Me, as a parent, personally, I think that’s a little excessive,” dad Brandon Campbell told WAFF.
“I don’t like it," added mom Rachel Munsey. "They take their only private place in the school that they can do their business."
The thing is, there's no denying the fact that vaping is a problem -- but is the solution really to violate their privacy to make it end?
Munsey suggested putting "spotters" in the bathroom — any kind of adult in a position of authority who can nip it in the bud as it's happening.
Or, if not inside the bathroom, why not post them right outside, Campbell argued.
“Maybe they need to put a monitor in the hall, like they do. Usually they have a truancy officer or a police officer at the school," he told the outlet. "Have them monitor the hallway because a bathroom is for each individual person’s privacy."
(To be fair, though, a truancy officer posted outside the bathroom isn't really going to stop matters if he or she doesn't actually go inside and enforce anything.)
The fact remains, vaping is clearly not the "harmless" alternative to cigarettes we've all been somehow pretending it is.
It's also not merely just a teen fad. Plenty of adults are hooked on e-cigarettes too, and on Tuesday, a Kansas woman became the sixth person to die of a lung-related illness caused by vaping.
"She had some underlying medical illnesses, but nothing that would have foretold the fact that within a week after starting using e-cigarettes for the first time, she developed full-blown acute respiratory distress syndrome and died," Dr. Lee Norman, secretary for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, told NBC News.
In addition to the six deaths so far, vape users have reported some 450 reported cases of severe respiratory illness.
As for the students at Wilson High School, Horton says that this is only a temporary measure, until a better strategy for combatting the problem can be reached. Until then, students using the boys' bathroom will have to abide by the rules.
