Hall County School District officials said this week they've had great success in reducing tobacco use among their students, but now there's a new enemy attacking the health of public school teens and they want to stop it as quickly as possible.
School Superintendent Will Schofield and Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Kevin Bales told the school board Monday night that they are working to form an ad hoc committee to determine how to curb the practice of vaping among the student population.
"We have gotten very little guidance at the state or national level [on how to handle the problem]," said Schofield at Monday's board work session. "I think there's an incredibly strong misnomer out there that all this is is a little bit of nicotine. That's not the way we see it at the school level."
Bales confirmed Schofield's reports that principals are having to deal with medical emergencies resulting from use of vaping materials.
"It's nicotine, but it's more than nicotine," Bales said. "It's THC, marijuana synthetics added to the oils...we're starting to see oils that are exported from China and different countries and folks are putting them in these devices...kids aren't even sure what they're vaporizing."
Bales said some students have passed out from using vaping materials and had to be transported to the hospital.
"We've had far too many calls where we've had students passed out in the bathroom or you have three students vaping and two of them are standing and one of them's passed out," Bales said.
Schofield and Bales were scheduled to meet Tuesday with the Hall County Solicitor's Office to get some guidance as they began their work on committee formation.
Schofield said the goal is to find a variety of members - including students - who will put together a campaign to educate students and curb use of vaping products. The committee would also suggest what support for users might look like, as well as what types of punishment might be appropriate for violators.
While not offering a specific date for having the committee in place, Bales told board members it needs to happen quickly.
"I think it's very important we get to work on it because we're losing ground on this one," Bales said.
Editor's note: Listen to Bales' comments to the Hall County School Board via the audio player accompanying this article.
