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“How can we stop kids from vaping?”
I hear this question from colleagues, parents, students, even my own 13-year-old. Most ideas emphasize reactive measures: hiring 4-5 additional staff members to patrol bathrooms, enacting random backpack and locker searches (prohibited by law), or installing electronic sensors and more cameras. Might we increase consequences for violations of CA Education Codes 48900 C, H, or J to include school suspensions or onerous punishments such as gum scraping or…?
We know the broad majority of students understand vaping to be an unhealthy, unwise, and, frankly, gross practice – especially in a school setting. Almost every day, we confiscate vaping paraphernalia from students, mete consequences, and refer to intervention services. My heart as a principal and a parent tells me to keep kicking down doors and rounding up offenders on behalf of all the students who just want to go to the bathroom in peace. I feel for these kids. Report from my seventh-grader to her brother, about to start middle school: “Uggh, the vaping in the bathroom is so nasty.”
Having worked with teenagers for 20 years now and tested the efficacy of those instincts, I’m confident the police-and-punish approach is limited in changing behavior. While the boundaries and consequences always need to be clear for young people, vaping is a health topic. Would you suspend someone for bulimia? Teenagers are developmentally geared to seek independence and choice. Where those personal limits extend vary widely among the population (as with adults). Thus, the number one way to ensure a percentage of teens make an unhealthy choice is to try to make the healthy choice for them. Our only hope is through empowerment. As a school, we empower through education.
This Wednesday, March 27, is Sequoia's annual Wellness Fair. For the past 16 years, Sequoia’s Teen Resource Center has organized student groups and partnered with community agencies to put on a school-wide health fair. Students gather in the gym, visit table displays, talk to experts, play games, and leave with information on a variety of wellness topics - including emergency preparedness, talking to your parents about mental health, digital wellness, consent and boundaries, body positivity, nutrition, mindfulness and yoga practices, and confronting stereotypes of LGBTQIA+ students. Student groups such as the Black Student union, Youth Advisory Board, The Gender/Sexuality Alliance, and the Health Careers Academy will facilitate activities. Community partners such as Redwood City Boys & Girls Club, Redwood City Parks & Recreation, Outlet & San Mateo Pride Center, Al Anon & Alateen, El Centro de Libertad, Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse (CORA), Kara- Grief Counseling, Fair Oaks Community Center, and the San Mateo County Office of Education Tobacco Use Prevention & Education will also be on hand.
Most adults now know that vaping is dangerous and there’s evidence, such as the most recent National Youth Tobacco Survey, that the education approach is having an impact on high schoolers, as well. Accountability is important, yes, but only hand-in-hand with education to provide them with both power and autonomy: what teens crave most. When I started at Sequoia in 2011, we as a society had all but eradicated cigarette smoking among teens. The tobacco industry fought back, and we’re here to meet their challenge. We’ll keep our eyes on the bathrooms, but also our foot on the pedal driving home the facts about the dangers of vaping.
Have a great week!
Best,
Sean
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