EDUCATION
2023 EDUCATION EDITION
Student vaping an increasing problem in Clear Creek ISD BY JAMES T. NORMAN and have since exceeded previous years, data shows. More students caught
INCREASING INCIDENCES Despite numbers declining during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of incidents of students caught with vape pens in Clear Creek ISD has risen in recent years. The 2022-23 school year had the highest number of incidents dating back to 2017. SOURCE: CLEAR CREEK ISD COMMUNITY IMPACT
A NATIONAL TREND National surveys from 2022 showed more than 2.5 million U.S. middle and high school students were currently using e-cigarettes. Those numbers break down to show how frequently those students are using the devices.
JUST WITHIN REACH Several of Clear Creek ISD’s eight high schools have one, if not multiple, vape shops within 2 miles of them.
Clear Creek ISD student vape incidents 800
Vape shops High schools
600
CLEAR LAKE CITY BLVD.
Breakdown of vaping among students 9.4%
Usage frequency among students who vape 27.6%
How frequently student users vape
SPACE CENTER BLVD.
400
Despite the number of students caught with vape pens rising in recent years, o cials at Clear Creek ISD are combating the problem in the ways they can: security, anonymous tip lines and communication. Now at the end of August, school districts are starting a new year—and trying to gure out how to head o the growing trend of students using vape pens on their campuses. Vaping, which for years was seen as an alternative to smoking tradi- tional cigarettes, has had more teens and young adults pick up the habit in recent years, said Dr. Sandeep Gupta, a pulmonologist in the Greater Houston area. While local school districts in some cases saw the number of students caught with vape pens peak prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, those num- bers plummeted during the pandemic
200 0
42.3%
40.6%
At Clear Creek ISD, the number of students caught vaping more than doubled in the 2018-19 school year compared to 2017-18, data from the district shows. Those numbers dropped during the next two years, which coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, but still were higher than 2017-18, according to the data. However, since then, the number of incidents have rebounded—up to 582 in 2021-22—and were the highest they’ve been in this six-year period during the 2022-23 school year, accord- ing to the data. Franklin Moses, assistant super- intendent of secondary education, said to help combat the problem, the district has taken to actions such as
146
17.1%
72.4%
90.6%
45
NASA PKWY.
Currently vaping Not currently vaping
Use daily Do not use daily
Every 1-5 days Every 6-19 days Every 20-30 days
CLEAR LAKE
color-coding hall passes to better make sure students are going where they’re supposed to during class. Other things, like security monitors and anonymous tip lines for students to report vape usage, are some practices they’ve installed too, Moses said. E orts to educate parents and keep them in the loop have been part of that as well. Combating the problem has become harder, though, due to the health challenges in recent years, such as with the pandemic, o cials said. State and federal agencies have stopped prioritizing youth vaping as an issue, and, in some cases, interest
from the community has waned, said Amanda McLauchlin, executive director with Bay Area Alliance for Youth and Families. The Alliance aims at building community and preventing sub- stance use in youth, according to its website. The group works with CCISD but also has a partnership with Friendswood ISD. “It’s almost an impossible ght— unless you can a ord to put bathroom monitors in every bathroom, or take the doors o every bathroom,” McLauchlin said. “Vapes are tiny [and] easy to hide. ... So there’s just very few opportunities.”
SOURCE: CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION COMMUNITY IMPACT
518
3
Legislative e orts In a broader e ort, Elaina Polsen, chief communications o cer for CCISD, said the district was a propo- nent of Senate Bill 21, passed in 2019, that raised the age required to buy tobacco from 18 to 21. “Our ... priority was to make this harder to get in kids’ hands,” she said. Another bill of note recently passed was House Bill 114, which brings with it a litany of new requirements for
schools to deal with the issue. One requirement makes it manda- tory for students caught with vapes to be placed in their respective district’s disciplinary alternative education program, also known as DAEP, rather than being sent to county programs, according to the bill. Texas House Rep. Ed Thompson, R Pearland, who authored the bill, said the idea was to give districts more exibility in how they handle students
96
528
646
N
caught with vape pens. McLauchlin, Polsen and Moses, however, said more must be done. CCISD has tried to aim toward helping students recover by not just
disciplining students but helping them overcome what several o cials described as an addiction. “We can’t punish our way out of this,” McLauchlin said.
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