001Um, so we're going to take some time tonight to to look at vaping. We all know just the problem is serving our youth in America today. Um, some statistics, they're tough to come by, accurate ones, I should say, when it comes on the number of teenagers that vape in the United States, but it's estimated that roughly 10% of all high school students report vaping in the past 30 days. Now, what parents need to know, of course, in uh nicotine vapes versus THC vapes. Nicotine vapes are standard cigarette vapes, of course. THC are are marijuana vapes. Um, both are horrendous, both are bad, of course. Um, but we need to know what the difference is. The the picture you see up there, those are generally what we consider nicotine vapes, okay? Disposable vapes. We're going to
002see some examples later on of THC or marijuana vapes. Vapes are especially difficult uh because they don't smell like smoke. Okay? They're hard to detect. They smell fruity uh sweet smelling. And so as parents and as school personnel, uh this can be a very very difficult thing to detect and also because of the size of it. We all know how small they are. can literally fit in somebody's palm. And so it it's a real difficult time for schools in in in fighting this battle. We all know the problems that vaping can lead to. Of course, addiction, lung irritation, breathing problems, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure. On top of that, I know uh Mr. Huff, one of our board members here, has been very passionate in some of our discipline hearings that we've had, and
003I echo his statements during those. They're they're very well said. and mean a lot. Meaning these companies that produce these vapes know what they're doing. They're stealing from us. And that's a line that Mr. Huff uses in there and it's stealing your money and it's stealing your life because it's going to lead to addiction down the road. And we as schools need to to stand together, fight against this. It's a tough battle, however, and as as I've been saying already so far, OTHS is not alone in this problem. If you talk to any school personnel around, every school, even grade schools, believe it or not, are having these issues. And so, we need to enlighten the public, understand the danger of this, and promote, of course, getting rid of these vapes in schools, in schools,
004not unique to OTHS, but the bathroom. The bathroom is primarily where these vapes are being smoked. Obviously, there's privacy in bathrooms. And uh I put in there the main reason for tardiness. All right. Now, that goes a long ways, but I know for us as as school personnel and the assistant principles battle this on a daily basis. Generally speaking, if a student has a tremendous amount of tardies, most likely there's some vaping involved. Okay? Uh we can't prove it. All right? But we just kind of know this through our experience in dealing with issues like this. And so that [clears throat] that's something that we have to think about going forward and how we're going to battle that as well. Okay, let's look at our student handbook and how we handle it here at OTS.
005Now, you have nicotine vapes, THC vapes. All right, it's kind of hard to read up there, but if a student is caught with a nicotine vape, this comes directly from our student handbook on page 32. The first offense is going to be one day of ACR or in school suspension. With progressive discipline, it gets worse. You know, as if you get caught a second or third time. [snorts] If a student is found in possession of a THC vape, then obviously the discipline is going to be a little more severe. Um, it could include up to a 10day suspension from school with a potential for what's called a discipline review hearing before the board of education, which could potentially result in expulsion. All right. So, this is a serious of a defense as we have here
006at OTHS. Um, that carries a very strict penalty, of course. All right. And OTHS takes this very seriously when it comes to CHC possession. Um, as you can see what's in our handbook. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Question. Um, the policy says could [clears throat] >> do a large percentage of these end up with a 10-day suspension. >> The overwhelming majority of them. Yes. Usually 10 days if not more. >> Percentage of these end up receiving some sort of disciplinary action from the board of education. >> What percentage you say? >> Would you say a rather large percentage? a very very large percentage. Yes. And that that's how serious the board and the community has has determined this to be that we can't have these in our schools. We cannot have it here at OTHS.
007And so students need to understand, parents need to understand the seriousness of bringing that on campus. >> Thank you. >> All right, let's look at some stats here with regards to vape in the last [clears throat] three semesters here at OTHS. Starting with the fall of 25, 23 different students were were found in possession of a nicotine vape. 10 students were found in possession of a THC vape. If you go back to spring of 25, it was 12 students in possession of nicotine vape, eight students in possession of THC vape. And then the fall of 24, 16 with nicotine, and nine with THC. Now, these numbers don't seem high, >> right? But I have a question. Are these numbers indicative of Um, they may have been found one person found both or they're separate. >>
008That's a great question. Um, that that could be both potentially, you know. Uh, let me let me take that back. No, that that would be individual because if they call it the THC vape, that's going to carry the the more stringent penalty, which in most cases comes to the school board. So, these numbers, as I was saying, they don't seem that high. Um, but that that's we know what's happening in our bathrooms, okay? We know what's happening there. Uh, it's very very tough to see and really catch, but our security team, of course, which we'll talk about in a minute, does a great job of this. Okay. So, what are we doing here at OTS to stop or deter vaping? Informational campaigns to show the dangers. what we're doing right now of course um things
009on panther beat we do all calls you know posters up in the hallways uh what I'm doing right now with the report board meetings we try to supervise bathrooms throughout the day the difficulty of that is we have 10 12 bathrooms throughout our campus okay 12 different bathrooms our security team that's what they do throughout the day they just roam around the building go into bathrooms to try to make it a deterrent so that students don't do that on campus. We also want to partner with parents and guardians on what to look for at home. So, if we could stop it at home, they won't bring it to school. So, again, what are things parents should look for? Well, they should look for items that resemble USB flash drives, what look like pens, small electronic
010devices. >> [snorts] >> Look for or smell for a sweet fruity sometimes skunk like that would be more your THC vapes on clothing their hair in their room backpacks. Look in your students backpack. I know that the board knows this more than than probably most of us here. One of the things we hear in discipline hearings, why did you bring that to school? Why did you bring it? I didn't want my parents to find it at home, so they put it in their backpack. Okay? So parents, please check your students backpacks. Look in the car uh for vape devices. Also increase secrecy, spending more time alone, you know, uh spend time with them, see what they're doing when when that's occurring so that if they're not smoking, they're engaging that activity. And then see where
011they're spending their money. you know, um, nicotine vapes on average are anywhere from $10 to $30 depending on the amount of what are called puffs in those. THC vapes can range anywhere from $ 20 to $50 for disposable ones and 20 to $100 for cartridges or pens. And so, you know, parents see these little cartridges that are literally about an inch in length and they're going to have a little yellowish kind of substance in there. That's generally a THC cartridge. So, be careful of those. See where they're spending their money. And of course, the scary part for any parent, for anybody, is the danger that these THC cartridges have. And that's the incredibly high potency of THC in them. Uh they could be anywhere from 70% pure [clears throat] THC upwards of 95% pure THC.
012Uh which, you know, when you talk about it compared to like just the regular marijuana leaf, it's so much higher and so much more dangerous. On top of that, the chemicals that's inside these things, there's very, very dangerous and scary stuff there. I put up here just some anti- vaping resources for high school students. The Truth Initiative, that first one up there is great. That website is is fantastic. Has all kinds of interactive things in there. Uh lessons even. Um, but these are just some some things to look for if you're a parent looking for some anti-aping resources uh for your son or