On Aug. 23, the hallways of West High were once again overflowing with students. Shouts of reunion filled the halls. All the while, an underlying feeling of unease crept into the back of students’ minds. They had heard the rumors. Vape sensors were now in the bathrooms. 

At the end of last year, the district decided to install vape sensors in all the bathrooms at Liberty, Tate, City and West High Schools. Their budget for this project was $350,000 and these sensors were set up in every restroom at West High over the summer. Each sensor is accompanied by a security camera placed outside every restroom so the district can monitor who enters and exits each restroom. If a sensor is tripped, an email is sent to the administration with a code specifying which bathroom the sensor was activated in. They can then compare the camera footage with the information from the sensor and evaluate the next steps. 

A common concern among students is that, with this system, students will be falsely accused of vaping in bathrooms. West High Principal Mitch Gross countered this rumor. 

“Theoretically, it could happen,” Gross said. “But it hasn’t happened yet. Ninety percent of the students who tripped the sensor have admitted to what they were accused of. If you walk in and see somebody vaping, walk right out. You don’t want to be guilty by association.”

On the first day of school, many teachers and students were concerned with the number of times the vaping sensors were set off. That number is misleading, though, since the sensors also gauge decibel levels. They are programmed to sense a general disruption in the environment and since the sensors were calibrated to a completely empty school, every little sound set the sensors off. 

“Anytime someone slammed a stall door, it tripped because [the school] had been quiet for some time,” said Gross. “We ended up having to call the district and shut off the noise piece because anytime a toilet flushed, it was tripped.” 

Since then, the sensors have become a popular topic of discussion among students and staff. John Cooper, an English teacher at West High, shares his perspective on the conversation around the vape sensors. 

“The big discussion here I think needs to shift from the sensors — whether or not we can catch you like a game of cops and robbers — to education, to the level of toxicity in those things. If anything, it sounds like the information we’re getting indicates an epidemic of vaping,” Cooper said. 

According to Cooper, teachers have been very supportive of the sensors since they first heard about them last year. 

“The first time that I had to write up a kid and the kid got suspended for a couple of days for vaping in my class was in 2017. I’m aware of kids who were vaping in the school as far back as 2015, 2014,” Cooper said. 

2015 was the year a small and discreet method of vaping hit the market. JUULs were introduced and quickly took off in the teenage population, drawing adolescents in with a wide variety of flavors. High school e-cigarette use increased by 135% from 2017 to 2019, according to the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS).  Julian Gentiluomo ’23, a student who doesn’t vape, elaborates on how popular these e-cigarette devices are at West High. 

“I think it’s really hard to not know people at the school [who do it]. You’d have to be in a very tight-knit crowd and not expand outwards do not know anyone that vapes here,” Gentiluomo said.