This commentary is by Jessica Wills, assistant principal, and Steven Dellinger-Pate, principal, of U-32 Middle/High School in East Montpelier. Dellinger-Pate lives in Barre, has been the U-32 principal for nine years, and was the 2021 Vermont High School Principal of the Year. Wills lives in Elmore, has been an assistant principal at U-32 for two years and previously taught at Peoples Academy Middle Level in Morrisville.
Flavored tobacco products are fueling an epidemic that is significantly impacting Vermont schools.
One of the best things we can do to help students succeed is to provide an environment where they can learn better. Unfortunately, the advent of e-cigarettes, vaping products and flavors is enticing kids, creating a crisis for schools that have impacted learning, demands on school administrators, teachers and counselors, and anxiety of students.
Kids are trying to learn while addicted to nicotine, and many are struggling.
Vermont legislators have the ability to change this by passing S.18, legislation that would eliminate the sale of menthol and flavored cigarettes. Menthol and flavors are the lures that hook kids to tobacco. Many try the products thinking it might be a fun one-time use with friends because the bubble gum, cotton candy, or mango vape tastes and smells appealing, but later find the nicotine won’t let them leave.
Students become addicted, and schools across Vermont see the negative impacts of that addiction. We want to thank the Senate for doing the first part of this hard work. We now need Vermont legislators to take action; this cannot wait.
Each dose delivers a potent dose of nicotine, a dangerous and highly addictive neurotoxin. According to the surgeon general, nicotine can harm adolescent brain development until age 25 — impairing learning, attention, memory and impulse control. These are essential skills our students need to be successful.
The Senate Health and Welfare Committee recently heard testimony from a Rutland High School nurse that students are leaving classrooms two to three times a day to vape in the bathrooms, and their learning suffers from missed class time.
A student assistance program counselor from Champlain Valley Union testified that when students become addicted to nicotine, “education becomes secondary.”
The Vermont Principals’ Association has urged the Legislature to act now because “vaping in schools is reaching a crisis level not only in high schools but also in middle schools in the state.” Vapes are easy to share among kids and can be concealed easily.
We wish this were a problem unique to just a handful of schools, but it is not. Here at U-32, we see students who are addicted struggle to get treatment. If we don’t stop selling these to kids, we will need to start spending significant amounts of money to get schools resources to support their students with addiction.
Schools need cessation programs, Substance Abuse Counselors, licensed alcohol and drug counselors, and resources to undo the damage caused by flavored tobacco products that fuel the epidemic in schools. And the need for additional resources comes at a time when our state already struggles to get enough mental health and addiction support for our existing problems.
We’re trying to address the use of e-cigs and vapes by school staff being present in common areas such as bathrooms and engaging youth in a schoolwide universal survey as an opportunity for students to ask for help. We have multiple staff members — including our student services department, RISE coordinator, dean, and administration — who provide opportunities for students caught vaping to engage in reflection and education.
But one of the best tools to help schools eliminate this problem would be to pass a ban on flavored tobacco and to do it now before more kids get addicted. Already, 26% of Vermont high school students are vaping, and daily use has tripled. This is an addiction, and this addiction is making it difficult for youth to go to school ready to learn.
Some may ask, are flavors really the problem? Yes. Nearly all (97%) of youth e-cigarette users say they use flavored products, and most cite flavors as the key reason for their use. The cooling effect of menthol reduces the harshness of smoking; unfortunately it also means that more than half of all kids who tried smoking cigarettes started with menthol.
Others may ask, will this even work? Yes. Massachusetts passed a law preventing the sale of menthol and flavored tobacco in November 2019. Since then, youth e-cigarette use has dropped from 32% to 17.6%, and youth smoking has fallen from 4.3% to 2.9%.
We’d like to see those kinds of declines here. Good declines mean less nicotine use, fewer addicted kids, and less time lost feeding the addiction in classrooms.
That means more time in class, a better environment for teachers, administrators and students, and a much better opportunity for successful outcomes in student health and learning.
The CDC has referred to e-cigarette use as a severe threat to middle and high school students. We couldn’t agree more. And when we know that youth across our state are becoming significantly harmed by having access to flavored e-cigarettes, it’s time to act. A ban on flavors will help youth succeed. We must put our kids before industry profits and prevent future generations from becoming addicted.
