Amid a national health crisis over vaping-linked respiratory illnesses, educat🎃ors across the country are taking extreme measures to stop students from puffing on e-cigarettes.
But not in New York City’s public schools.
While others are going as far as removing bathroom doors and expelling stud💙ents caught just once with e-cigarettes, the nation’s largest district is taking a comparatively lax approach.
Principals say the Department of Education has equipped them with paltry punishment options for kids caught vaping, and school safety agents don’t even i✅ssue “warning cards” to vapers.
“🍒School leaders have been communicating their dissatisfaction with how the discipline code addresses vaping,” said Craig DiFolco, spokesman for the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators. “The recent changes to the discipline code have further eroded principals’ discretion.”
“Vaping” and “e-cigarettes” were added to the DOE’s list of “Level 2” infractions earlier this month, the agency said, with punishments ranging from a meeting with the studꦍent to being kicked out of class.
“You cannot suspend for vaping,” said one middle-school principal. “If a kid kicks up his feet in class and smokes a cigarette … you can call the parent. That’s about it.”
There have been 64 reported cases of vaping-related respiratory illnesses statewi꧅de and 14 in New York City. The Centers for Disease Control has counted 380 co🦩nfirmed and possible cases nationally linked to vaping nicotine and marijuana.
In a 2018 survey released Tuesday, 13,000 New York City middle-school students admitted to using e-cigarettes in the previous 30♛ days.
Across the US and in NYC private schools, administrators are cracking do🅷wn.
Ten districts in New Jersey, plus high schools in Long Island, Ohio an💖d Illinois, have installed vape deﷺtectors in student bathrooms,
Along with restroom sensors, Staten Island’s Monsignor Farrell HS is installing facial-recognitionཧ cameras on bathroom outer doors and adding magnetic locks that open with chip-equipped student ID cards to track when students enter and how long they’🌱re inside.
“The deans are excited that I’m giving them a tool with teeth,” the Catholic school’s president, Lou Tobacco, told The Post. “No school is immune from this problꦏem. We can’t keep our heads in the sand.”
The🔯 sys♛tem for the 800-student school costs less than $15,000, Tobacco said.
In public schools, the NYPD’s school safety agents can confiscate the easi൲ly concealed vaping deviceဣs, but it’s up to the principal to discipline students.
“Students smoke marijuana on school grounds, and School Safety Agents, due to n𝄹ew disciplinary guidelines, c🌟an only issue toothless ‘warning cards,’” said Gregory Floyd, president of the Teamsters Local 237 union that represents the agents.
“Vaping and e-cigarettes present yet another challenge to keeping students out of harmsও’ way.”
DOE spokeswoman Miranda Barbot said, “The health and well-being of our students is our top priority, and in partnership with the City’s Health Department, we’ve shared information with schools, students,♍ and families on the risks of vaping,”