Members of a newly-formed Vaping Ad Hoc Committee held their first meeting Tuesday morning, working to formulate the first steps to a plan to put a dent in the vaping habits of Hall County students.
The Hall County School District last month initiated the idea for a committee, but representatives from both the Gainesville City School System and Lakeview Academy were part of Tuesday's discussion at Lanier Charter Career Academy.
Kevin Bales, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning for the Hall County School District, said the committee spent about an hour and a half at its first sit-down meeting. They learned some basics about the dangers of vaping from Mamie Coker, the School District's Health Services Coordinator. In addition, school principals and resource officers shared their experiences of trying to contain the exploding use of vaping devices on campuses across the county.
Bales said one of the primary ideas that came out of Tuesday's meeting was starting the education effort with younger students. The middle and high school principals on the committee said kids need to learn about the dangers of vaping before they get to them.
"One of the summaries of the first meeting here is that we realize that we've got to get some elementary representation," Bales said. "These students that are involved with vaping in our high schools and in our middle schools...have siblings...and we've had instances in the Hall County School District-and this is happening across our state-where you have fifth graders, fourth graders, third graders...that have access to these vaping devices in their households."
Bales said vaping on school campuses is illegal, but that hasn't stopped the practice. He said the devices are easy for students to hide, and that's another educational opportunity; teachers and parents need to know what to look for.
"We've got devices that look like USB devices...we've got cute little devices that look like miniature cardholders...one of them looks almost like a miniature phone that someone can hold in the palm of their hand and it can almost go undetected," Bales said.
Bales said he thinks the work of the committee not only will benefit the school district, but also it should help the community learn more about the growing health risks of vaping.
"Schools are a microcosm of society, so if it's happening in our schools, it's happening in our neighborhoods, it's happening in our homes at night, it's happening in our communities and it's happening in our business places," said Bales.
He and Coker both pointed out that as many as 10 Hall County students have suffered medical emergencies this school year as a result of vaping, and about half of those have been taken to the hospital.
In the spring, at least two schools will have completed the Catch My Breath program, an e-cigarette and Juul prevention use program developed by the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.
Committee members will get a report on the outcome of the program - and continue work on additional education and policy efforts - at a second meeting in late March.
