Vaping has been a huge problem in high school for many years, and drugs in general for even longer. Countless people lose their academic success and a lot of their potential to addiction, and the amount of accessibility and use of vapes isn’t helping. The first few weeks of October were filled with what feels like the most fire alarms all this year, and maybe longer. Most people just assumed that it was vaping and treated it like it’s a closed case, but is it? Have all these incidents really been from students vaping, and is that all there is to it, nothing to be done, nothing that has been done?
The first person asked about this dilemma was the principal of PV, Mr. Whittaker. But before this, one of the Saga’s members noticed there was an issue being dealt with by a student suspected of having a vape. The administration staff were watching him until his parents or security could get there, and in this period of time the reporter confirmed that he saw the student did have a vape, and was trying to find somewhere to put it where they could not get caught. While the staff were busy with helping other people, the student had pulled out the vape and attempted to slide it in his shoe, but he dropped it a couple feet away on the floor, and stepped on it, so no staff noticed when they looked over to see what was going on. Later, he was surrounded by a group of students, and what happened after the group of students were dispersed by the staff is uncertain.
After this event, the reporter interviewed Mr. Whittaker about his thoughts on a rise in vaping, along with confirming if the recent incidents are truly from vaping as people thought. When asked about the incidents, Mr. Whittaker stated that “None of the recent fire alarms came from an actual fire or smoke that would set them off,” and that vaping is a large issue in PV and always has been. The most common place that Mr. Whittaker noted that students will decide to vape is in the school restrooms, which is a reason why staff members will be stationed outside bathrooms, with hopes of intimidating or catching people who are going to attempt to vape in one, even though students will still find ways to sneak vapes past, and people have reported seeing kids vape in bathrooms even as a staff member waits outside.
Mr. Whittaker gave a walkthrough of the safety measures in PV, and what they do when a student is suspected of having a vape. If a student is suspected of having a vape, they will go to the office and their backpack will be searched. After this they will empty out their hands and turn their pockets inside out to reveal any vape they might have. This is about as thorough as they are allowed to go, yet as our reporter saw it will not always be thorough enough, and people can get away with seeming innocent, even with a vape on them.
Vaping is one of the larger threats at school, and even though it seems like it’s becoming more imminent, Mr. Whittaker said that the problems with vaping have been mostly consistent, yet that doesn’t make them any better. Mr. Whittaker speaks for PV as a whole when he says “We have a no tolerance policy here at PV. We have health classes, Saturday School, and a program called New Leaf to educate students about the harmful effects of vaping. We try to do the best we can education wise about teaching students just how dangerous vapes are to them.” He and all of the administration works hard with different programs and clubs to educate people on the dangers of vaping, hoping this deadly product can be dealt with in more ways than one.
Outside of the administration, there are many clubs around PV that try to target drug use in teens, noting that they can impact your physical and mental health. One of these clubs is Athlete Committed, a club focused on helping athletes stay consistent and healthy, including educating them about harmful drug use. Oscar Fuentes, a coordinator of Athlete Committed, says how there has been a general increase in drug use in schools. “In high school [he] saw drug use a lot less. There has been some progress in athlete health, but the use of drugs in students is more common now than when [he] went to school.” Athletes are just as susceptible to drug use as any other student, and the impact it will have on their physical health is something that Athlete Committed tries to show them, but not in a way to scare them, like other educational programs have tried.
Teen Drug use is a problem that many have tried to use different methods to subdue, and in Athlete Committed, Oscar takes an approach with education. Instead of trying to scare students, he will use evidence and information to teach students how drugs will harm them and their physical or athletic progress, a method called EBT. Athlete Committed attempts to show ways to improve their health, improving the lives of athletes little by little, day by day. Oscar says one of his favorite quotes is “It’s a constant quest to try to be better today than you were yesterday and better tomorrow than you were the day before” by Kobe Bryant, further showing that it’s never too late to improve, and you should try to move towards a better self, something that Athlete Committed helps show its members.
Athlete committed is a very influential club for athletes at PV, just as Friday Night Live (FNL) influences the general public of PV with an array of different activities. Ben Donnelley, an Officer of FNL, says that their club “stands to keep [the] school campus safe, and let students know that they have a safe place to go to and learn about tobacco and alcohol overuse[…]“ with hope that they can help as many people as they can learn about the dangers of drug use. Ben also has noticed that there are lots of people doing drugs at school, and one thing that has stood out is the fact that people are more open about drugs, it’s not as shunned as it once was. This is concerning because just as information can show people the danger of vaping, people can also get pressured into vaping, especially when it is so much more normal than it once was. Just as people talk about vaping more often, FNL attempts to do the opposite, spreading information about the dangers that come from drug use. FNL will have monthly climate projects to help people in PV. Members of FNL will go out into the quad and have an enjoyable activity for students to do, while also informing them about different topics at the same time.
Drug use is a problem embedded deep into our school, and one that might always be here, no matter how much it will seem to disappear, or how little of a problem it gets. This norm for students is something that can’t be a simple fix with one cure; it will require the help of many, affecting the rules, education, and the school as a whole to fix it. All of this aside, PV is doing what it can to work towards a school without any threats of drug use, little by little.
