Revere High School continues to deal with students vaping during school. 

In 2019, Revere installed vape detectors in all high school bathrooms in an attempt to prevent vaping.

Despite the detectors and a strict “no-vaping” policy, students continue to flock to bathrooms to use their e-cigarettes at all times of the day. The installed FlySense vape detectors work by detecting a change in air quality, yet often fail to pick up a student’s vape. 

If, however, a change in air quality is detected, an alert is sent to the principal, vice principal and student resource officer, all of whom are male. This leaves female students greatly without risk of consequence unless an administrator is able to find a female teacher and go to the detected location in time. 

Additionally, these detectors do not account for actions taken outside of the bathroom, such as in the classrooms, where students are beginning to use their vape products. 

Without the threat of punishment, students retreat to the bathrooms, preventing other students from using the bathrooms for their intended purpose and putting all at risk of the dangerous side effects of vaping. 

Vaping is not a problem unique to Revere and is often brushed off by students and adults alike as normal teen experimentation. Additionally, even with the newest resources, it is hard to enforce a no-vaping policy without infringing upon students’ rights. 

However, this does not imply vaping is not serious. 

Revere needs a new enforceable policy to combat vaping. With limited education about the dangers and an almost absent threat of being caught, students lack the resources to make educated decisions about vaping. 

Revere’s current no-vaping policy and commitment to putting education first is a good start to addressing the problem, but more needs to be done for change to be made.