Valley school districts are trying to fight back on a newer reality: students vaping. Some districts are putting vape sensors in bathrooms to help deter and curb vape use in schools.
“It’s becoming quite a problem,” said Allen Moore, the director of safety and security for Mesa Public Schools.
The number of students using tobacco products has decreased in the last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number went from 14.1% down to 10%, but that translates to about 2.8 million kids. Among middle and high school students, e-cigarette products such as vapes were the most used tobacco products in 2023.
According to the Arizona Youth Survey, in the most recent results from 2022, 13.6% of eighth-grade kids reported using a vape at least once or more during their lifetime. Nearly 21% of 10th graders and 27% of 12th graders reported using e-cigarettes. Those numbers are down compared to previous years, but schools say it is still a big issue.
“We’re seeing the trend, not just within Peoria Unified, that students are starting to vape at a younger age,” said Kevin Molino, the acting superintendent and chief technology and operations officer for the Peoria Unified School District.
The Peoria Unified School District tested out using the Verkada brand vape sensors in one of its high school bathrooms last year. The vape sensors look like smoke alarms, and they detect the particles and chemicals that come from vapes. If the sensor detects someone vaping, it will alert school staff by email or text.
Through investigations using cameras that are outside of the bathrooms, school resource officers and security can identify the student who will then face discipline.
“We saw the increase when the vape sensors were first live, then we saw a decrease and student behaviors starting to change,” Molino said.
Bathrooms are a specific target for students, as there are no cameras in them and no adult supervision. Molino said kids don’t usually vape when they’re walking the halls or in class because there are cameras or staff members watching them.
“There’s a lot of things that happen in bathrooms that we don’t have visibility into. The area, for students, the last two or three years have had the most concerns with,” Molino said.
The district installed the vape sensors in high school bathrooms over the summer and they’re now working on expanding it to middle schools as well.
“We’re trying, not just to deter it, but we really want them to learn, and then for administration and whether it’s the school resource officer, have the conversations with the students, the impact it can have on their health in the long-term,” Molino said.
Vapes are now becoming more obscure. Moore said he’s seen vapes that are actually highlighters and also vape pens.
“Vaping to me is more of a problem than cigarettes because it’s harder to detect. Cigarettes are easier to smell, they were harder to smuggle into the schools,” Moore said. “Vape pens nowadays are so small, some of them the size of a pen, they’re very easy to conceal, very easy to use.”
Mesa Public Schools is testing out what’s called the Halo Smart Sensor, which is another vape detector. The district currently has a vape sensor in one bathroom at Red Mountain High, which was put up in late September.
“They said they get about 15 alerts a day from this one bathroom and about five of them lead to discipline,” Moore said of Red Mountain High staff who reported the numbers to him. “They actually make a comment that if they had more staff members, they could get to more of them sooner and have more catches.”
In Moore’s case with Mesa Public Schools, their sensors are tied to their camera system. There are no cameras on the sensor and no cameras in the bathroom, either. If the sensor detects someone vaping, Moore said the camera security system will be alerted.
“We have camera monitors at all of our high schools. When they get an alert, the alert comes over their computer. It also draws in the cameras in that area, so we know who exactly is in that area and we can dispatch security to that area,” Moore said.
Mesa Public Schools hopes to expand the sensors to all high schools and middle schools, pending board approval.
“Our goal is not to really catch kids. Our goal is to make bathrooms a safe place and to get these kids to understand we don’t tolerate vaping,” he said.
