Smoke Behind Closed Doors

As students run to and from class and teachers rush to copy handouts during a seemingly short passing period, some students take this time to vape in secret spots, behind closed doors and out of sight.
“I have vaped in the bathrooms a few times, and I think the main reason I do is because it’s away from everyone,” a PHS sophomore said. “I find it easy to not get caught even with the vape detectors, because I go right back to class after the bathroom.”
Another PHS student said kids and teenagers start vaping due to peer pressure.
“I got into vaping mainly because a lot of my friends were doing it so I would want to do it with them, and I think peer pressure is a main reason why other people start vaping as well,” a PHS sophomore said. “I usually only vape with my friends, I don’t do it by myself that often.”
Trying to quit vaping can be challenging for some due to the chemical nicotine which is infused in the product. Nicotine causes the release of dopamine in the brain giving people a feeling of satisfaction when they vape, according to the Health and Social Services website.
“I have tried to quit and I still am trying to. I find it very difficult to stop but I really want to soon because I feel less focused during school and I think I am losing a bit of sleep,” a PHS student said.
The school has implemented vape detectors that send an alert to the admin when someone is vaping.
“We get an alert that people are vaping in bathrooms once every couple days, but they are most frequent around sports events. Usually it’s in the bathroom in the gym or the bathroom at Witter Field because the public can use those,” Principal David Yoshihara said. “Anybody can vape so it’s a little harder to catch a student vaping when you have visiting teams or adults, but we will get those alerts and go and follow up on it.”
The detectors in the bathrooms are one of the newer models which can clearly tell when a student is vaping.
“The vape detectors look at particulate matter, and our systems are very sophisticated so it can distinguish body spray or cologne from a vape,” Yoshihara said. “When we have suspicion of a student vaping in the bathroom we will call them in and ask if anything happened, and usually we will do a search of their belongings, but we will never do all of that if we aren’t reasonably confident that it’s that student.”
There is a possibility students can be falsely accused of vaping since there are many students filtering in and out of bathrooms, and there are always students wandering the halls.
“I was in the bathroom across from Ms. Adams’ room, and Ms. Adams came in looking to see what we were doing. When we left Mr. Bell was waiting outside and he had us walk to the office with him even though we had done nothing wrong,” sophomore Beatrice Nackely said.
Nackely also said she wished the office searched her and her bag instead of having to call her parents, when she wasn’t at fault.
Students that vape have found other ways to sneak it on campus.
“I don’t often vape on campus, but when I do I don’t always do it in the bathrooms, sometimes I will just go to a spot where no one is and I can be there without the risk of a vape detector,” a PHS student said.
Sophomore Brent Wong believes there are better ways to curb vaping on campus.
“I think there should be more education and counseling to provide more knowledge for vaping, I think having the vape detectors is a good idea but having other measures like counseling is a great idea,” Wong said.
A PHS sophomore agreed, saying that more counseling would be a great idea and more education focused on younger groups would be a smart idea to help prevent vaping in younger generations.
Most of the knowledge for vaping comes from the Health Ed program that sophomores are required to take for a semester.
“Health Ed is where students get the most instructional level around the dangers of vaping, and I think we have some opportunities in academy to share more about the hazards of vaping,” Yoshihara said.
In health class a PHS group called Tobacco-Use Prevention Education (TUPE) goes into the health classes and teach about the hazards of vaping.
“The goal is to raise awareness about addiction, the harmful effects of nicotine and tobacco, and provide resources for those already affected by nicotine and tobacco,” senior Gen Hiller said. “I would say the main thing that we do specifically is we help with the health classes, and based on our presentations people are definitely aware and very exposed to vaping.”
Hiller also said that she thinks since the vape detectors and cameras have been installed, and also because sometimes they lock the bathrooms, there’s been a general decrease in the amount of people who do it on campus.
“In terms of the Healthy Kids survey, I think it was a year ago they came out with stats that showed that in the past few years, there’s been a 7 percent decrease in the amount of use of nicotine, overall in high school,” Hiller said.
Yoshihara said that overall it’s detrimental to young people and our community, he thinks it could cause harm and that the faculty should be more diligent in making sure the youth doesn’t have access to vapes.
Not only does vaping occur at school, but it also occurs at social functions such as parties.
“I definitely think nicotine is introduced in social situations,” senior Natalie Tsung said. “I remember when I was an underclassman and would see upperclassmen doing it, I was definitely curious, and curiosity makes you try new things.”
According to two large-scale surveys conducted by the National Library of Medicine, 32.6 percent of smokers themselves feel the need to smoke for socially relevant reasons, and smokers endorse socializing as a reason to smoke.
“It’s not that people force you to do it, it’s more the person who isn’t doing it feels left out.” sophomore Lukas Kim said.
However, once one starts using nicotine in social situations because they feel left out, they may continue to use nicotine regularly.
“Some people keep doing it because they like the feeling they get from nicotine, so it becomes an addiction,” Kim said.
According to the CDC, among students who have vaped, 43.6 percent reported current use. This means almost half of the students who get introduced to vaping continuously do it after trying it.
The National Library of Medicine conducted a study where participants were randomly shown Instagram posts of people with or without vapes, and then reported their perception on the person in the Instagram post, whether that be positive or negative.
According to the study, “The social contracts of teens who vape – perceived those shown with e-cigarettes as more “immature”, “inconsiderate”, and “trashy.”
This common stigmatization around vaping between people who choose to vape and people who choose not to can create barriers during social situations, similar to the stigma around people who smoke cigarettes.
“I would definitely say people break off into small groups, at parties and stuff,” sophomore Kate Tong said. “And people who chose not to smoke feel left out, or that they should.”