Smoking is bad. Everybody knows that. Over 480,000 deaths each year are attributed to the noxious activity, according to the CDC.
But vaping, well, that’s a different story.
Manufacturers push upon children the myth that vapes aren’t addictive, that they’re flavorful and pleasurable, and that they’re everything a teen could want.
Dozens of students at De Pere High School use the cancerous products. Because of this, De Pere High School has decided to install vape detectors in its bathrooms.
‘Vape detectors’, as the name suggests, are small pieces of technology capable of sensing the chemicals released by most commercial vapes. Unlike most detectors, vape detectors do not beep and scream after being tripped.
Instead, when activated by the fumes of an e-cigarette, they send a signal to cameras outside the bathroom, prompting them to start recording. After this, teachers and administrators can review the footage to learn who was in the bathroom at the time of the alarm.
According to Roger Allen, the principal of DPHS, the decision to install these sensors comes from the failure of the previous system. Before technology became involved, De Pere’s vape-reporting process relied heavily on the participation and cooperation of students. Teens were expected to report their peers if seen vaping, but this went astray in many ways, says Allen. Students were unwilling to ‘snitch’ on their classmates and refused to come forward. Some were afraid, some were angry, some were just indifferent. DPHS hopes that this new technology will “take it out of the kid’s hands”, as Allen states.
Around two dozen have been ordered, and one will be placed in every student bathroom come October. The specific models being installed are Halo 2C sensors. Allen says that this brand was chosen because of its success in neighboring schools, along with compatibility with our current camera system.
“Talking to some of the other districts, we want the bathrooms to be a safe place for everybody,” Mr. Allen said. “And one of the things that we heard consistently from the district that installed them was they heard thank yous from kids saying, you know, hey, I feel comfortable going into the bathrooms now.”
These detectors are individually priced at around $1200 each, though the lump sum paid by De Pere was $45,000, presumably including installation and maintenance fees. This is not a one-time fee, though, and if USDD decides to maintain the sensors, they will have to pay a yearly fee of $300 to use the Halo software, stated Allen.
The biggest issue with these sensors, and one that the student body deserves to be informed of, is their tendency for false alarms. Halo 2Cs can theoretically be set off by spray-on deodorant or specific perfumes.
“I’m sure there’ll be, you know, situations where we’ll have to investigate and there’ll be false positives,” Allen said. “But we’ll work through that.”
This is not an uncontroversial topic, as some students may see it as an infringement on their privacy. But Allen and the school board ultimately believe that the Halo sensors will create a safer environment for De Pere students.
“We want to get this out of the students’ hands,” Allen said. “We want it to be a safe place for everybody.”
