North Jersey schools crack down on vaping with drug testing, suspensions

• Ramsey students who violate the policy will be suspended for five days for the first offense and will not be allowed to take part in any athletic, extracurricular, or after school activities for seven days.

Parents, take notice — your child's school is cracking down on vaping.

Students caught using e-cigarettes — commonly called vaping — or in possession of vaping devices can, in an increasing number of northern New Jersey school districts, be found in violation of substance abuse policies. Students caught vaping or with a vaping device may face drug testing, suspensions and lose privileges, school officials say. 

Leaders in some school districts are trying to sound the alarm bell by seeking to put a stop to what they say is a rise in the use of nicotine-delivery devices by teens. Some districts are toughening their policies and imposing stricter discipline. And they're getting help from the state — as of Nov. 1, you have be 21 to legally purchase tobacco products in New Jersey. 

Cracking down

One northern New Jersey school district getting tough on vaping is Ramsey, which announced late last year that students caught using vaping devices will be in violation of its substance abuse policy. 

"It has ... become increasingly evident that the use of e-cigarettes among high school and middle school students in Ramsey is a concern," reads a letter sent to parents from the principals of the district's schools in November.  "We do not want to return to the days when cigarette use among young teens was prevalent." 

Students pictured vaping on social media, including Instagram, spurred the principals to send the letter to parents, they said. 

"It is clear that students are experimenting," the prinicipals wrote. "E-cigarettes pose an even greater potential risk among young teens than cigarettes did."

District officials have found that vaping devices can be used not only for nicotine products, but also for ingesting marijuana and other drugs, the principals wrote to parents. The letter also alerted parents to Juul vaporizers — e-ciagrette devices that resemble USB flash drives — and linked to a USA TODAY report on vaping.

While state laws govern underage smoking, local districts are left to determine the appropriate consequences for students.

Ramsey students who violate the policy will be suspended for five days for the first offense and will not be allowed to take part in any athletic, extracurricular, or after-school activities for seven days. These include graduation, dances and other events.

Repeat offenders face harsher penalties including suspension for 10 days and banned from extracurricular activities for one year. Third-time offenders will be barred indefinitely from athletics and extracurricular activity.

The letter asks parents and guardians to talk to their children about e-cigarettes and how they use social media.

Ridgewood High School also noted a rise in students using e-cigarettes and vaporizers, and sent a similar letter to parents in October.

The increase in vaping has been seen on and off school property, and particularly in high school bathrooms, Ridgewood High School Principal Thomas A. Gorman said.

"This trend is disconcerting especially since a majority of students do not think tobacco use is a positive thing," he said, citing an anonymous student survey.

According to a recent survey of students th  Ridgewood schools conducted, 88 percent of students agree that using tobacco is never a good thing, Gorman said. Ninety percent never use tobacco, and 96 percent do not use tobacco in an average week.

Students caught violating the tobacco/vaping school policy will be suspended for three days, Gorman wrote in his letter to parents. 

He said students are attracted to e-cigarettes because they are cheaper than cigarettes and are more readily available. It's also harder for parents to detect them because they do not emit the tobacco odor and can be easily concealed.

"There is also false information out there that e-cigarettes are not as dangerous as cigarettes," he said.

While Gorman noted the devices can be used to smoke marijuana and other drugs, the Ridgewood High School student handbook stops short of listing vaping or e-cigarettes under its drugs and alcohol section.

There is a separate section for "tobacco, vaporizers and tobacco-like products."

In addition to three days of suspension for students caught smoking on school grounds, they will be required to meet with a crisis counselor. A parent must also accompany the student to a re-admit conference.

Detentions are given to students caught with tobacco products or using the products in line of sight of school property.

There are several consequences for students found in possession of drug paraphernalia and drugs, alcohol, or steroids. Drug testing, however, is not required unless school officials believe a student is under the influence of a drug, as required by state law, according to the Ridgewood policy.

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Police are working with school districts to combat vaping, too.

Just a few weeks after Gorman's letter went out, the state police Office of Regional Operations and Intelligence Center sent school districts a report on the dangers of vaping. The report described a police response to an unidentified northern New Jersey high school after two students reportedly were vaping in the bathroom. The responding officer and a school employee became ill after being exposed to what was later determined to be concentrated nicotine, the report said. 

"After the exposure, the officer experienced what he described as an 'out of body' experience, feeling as though he could not speak, having an overall cloudy perception of his surroundings, nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, and respiratory distress," the state police report said. "The school employee reported respiratory distress and an itchy/burning sensation to their arms and hands." 

What are some schools doing?

Other northern New Jersey schools that list vaping in their substance abuse policy include Wyckoff in Bergen County, Lakeland Regional High School in Wanaque, which is in Passaic County, Montclair in Essex County, Parsippany-Troy Hills in Morris County and Hillsborough in Somerset County.

Millburn schools recently held a forum on the dangers of vaping, which was attended by more than 400 local residents. Titled: "Teens and vaping: Seeing Through the Vapor," the event was hosted by the Consortium of Berkeley Heights, Chatham, Millburn, New Providence and Summit School Districts.

Nancy Kislin, a family psychotherapist and parent educator, was among the panelists.

"This is happening," Kislin said. "It's happening big time in middle school and high school. ... You told your kid not to run out into traffic. Tell your kids it's not OK."

Kislin said it's possible parents are actually funding their own children's vaping habit, which can cost hundreds of dollars. She said Juul starter kits cost $50 or more and refill cartridges cost $16. 

"But since your kids are underage, they are buying it from someone else who is charging them $20 and up," she said. 
 

At Lakeland High School, possession of a vaping device is considered a violation of the drug paraphernalia section of the school's substance abuse policy. Punishment for possession of a vaping device or vaping itself is two days of in-school suspension, a mandatory drug test, and the student must be cleared by a physician in order to return to school.

If the drug test results are positive, the student faces additional consequences. These include Saturday detention, out-of-school suspension, and sports and club sanctions. Discipline points are also assigned.

Principal Matthew Certo detailed the punishments in a letter to parents and published on Lakeland's website in December. There are also consequences for possession of a vape, and selling or sharing one.

"Vaping seems to be the new fad these days, so we wanted to get out in front of it," Lakeland Superintendent Hugh Beattie said. "We put the letter together and let people know where we stand on it. ...  We just had to start taking it really seriously." 

Beattie said the district did not write a new policy when it comes to vaping, but took vaping and applied it to existing smoking and substance-abuse policies.

He pointed out that state law prohibits smoking inside schools and on school grounds. Lakeland considers the law to also apply to school buses, he said.

"Before school, after school, during school and on anything related to school like a school bus," he said. "Nobody is allowed to be smoking at sports events on our campus at all."

In the Parsippany-Troy Hills district, Superintendent Barbara Sargent said there have been a few vaping incidents, but nothing "exorbitant." Students caught vaping must submit to a drug screen, she said. If results are negative, the smoking policy is applied, but if results are drug positive, the substance abuse policy is applied.

Anti-smoking advocate

Karen Blumenfeld, executive director of Global Advisors on Smokefree Policy in Summit, applauded the vaping policies, but also said more education and regulation is needed.

"Nicotine is a drug," she said. "It's more addictive than heroin or cocaine."

She said that while there has been a decrease in youth smoking cigarettes, vaping with e-cigarettes and hookahs is, "on the dramatic rise." She said it's a trending "epidemic," and that it's important for schools and parents to help.

She said nicotine impedes brain development in young people and increases heart rates and blood pressure.

"I don't think any parent would want to have their child's brain development be impeded, nor would a student," she said.

Blumenfeld pointed to efforts by some municipalities to regulate e-cigarettes where the state hasn't yet. Bloomingdale is among the nearly 30 towns that require businesses that sell electronic smoking devices to be licensed.

"Right now the state does not require a seller of e-cigarettes to get approved for a license from the state so the state does not track who is selling these products," she said.

Blumenfeld said this is a problem because local health departments can't enforce the state's law against underage tobacco product sales if they don't know who is selling the products.

Blumenfeld wants the state to adopt a special tax on e-cigarettes. She said the new governor and members of the legislature are promoting the legalization of recreational marijuana as a way to bring in millions in tax dollars.

"If the state needs funds, why don't they just increase the taxes on cigarettes and then actually have a specialized tax for vaping," she said.

The results would bring in $1 billion in tax revenue, she said, and bring New Jersey's cigarette tax to the level recommended by the federal government.

The merchant's perspective

Casey Lee Morgan is the owner of Sparkway Smoke and Vapor on Main Street in Bloomingdale. The shop opened six years ago. 

Among the products sold are e-cigarettes, e-liquids, e-juice flavors, vaporizers and blown glass. Inside he keeps a tidy shop with several display cases filled with the products. A sign on the front door reads, "Must be 21 with ID."

Morgan said people under the age of 21 have tried to enter the store, but are turned away

"Every transaction we card," he said. "We don't want to get in trouble with the town."

Morgan said he doesn't agree with the argument that e-cigarette manufacturers are using flavors to target children. Some of the flavors include candies, fruit, coffee, and deserts such as cannoli and ice cream.

"If anything they are targeting cigarette users who want to quit smoking cigarettes," he said. "I can tell you from speaking to people that have switched to e-cigarettes from smoking cigarettes they've said they've had improvements in their quality of life."

Morgan said he doesn't disagree with critics of smoking, though.

"Obviously abstaining from them entirely would be the best thing to do," he said. "You wouldn't tell someone it's a good idea to vape, right? If you're asking me honestly, you should not smoke."

Morgan said that similar to alcoholic beverages, people have their vices and, "if they need their nicotine, they're going to get it."

Additional reporting by Sean Oates, Linda Voorhis, Marsha Stoltz, Nicholas Katzban, and Matt Kadosh.

Email: Agnish@northjersey.com