Schools are using surveillance tech to catch students vaping, snaring some with harsh punishments

When Aaliyah Iglesias was caught vaping at a Texas high school, she didn’t realize how much could be taken from her.

Suddenly, the rest of her high school experience was threatened: being student council president, her role as debate team captain and walking at graduation. Even her college scholarships were at risk. She was sent to the district’s alternative school for 30 days and told she could have faced criminal charges.

Like thousands of other students around the country, she was caught by surveillance equipment that schools have installed to crack down on electronic cigarettes, often without informing students.

NovaPrime,
@NovaPrime@lemmy.ml avatar

So in order to protect the kids…we’re going to put their future prospects in jeopardy with heavy handed zero tolerance policy bs? Throw the fucking vape away and move along jfc

Djtecha,

Right. The amount of damage they do to “prevent damage” here is outstanding. Additionally, wouldn’t that money be better spent hiring more teachers?

FlavoredButtHair,
@FlavoredButtHair@lemmy.world avatar

Schools like this need to be shut down. Let kids vape and figure things out themselves. If they’re smart enough for college, good let them go.

You’re only teaching them they can’t trust higher ups and government type people.

ExfilBravo,

That’s a good lesson actually. We would be better as a society if more people didn’t blindly trust their government and politicians.

Stanwich,

Man. We had Rambo knives at school when I was a kid. Compass fishing line ect… played splitsies during recess. Being a kid sucks now

afraid_of_zombies,

I couldn’t even count the number of times I rode in the back of a pickup truck when I was a kid. You know who else can’t count it? All the kids who died from doing that and didn’t grow up to comment on the internet how everything is too safe these days. This is the essence of survivor bias.

Plus you know not having universal healthcare means any injury could be a financial deathblow. Which is why we get stories in the news about people having to sue their own families.

Stanwich,

I’m in canada. I have Healthcare. Looks like more Rambo knives for me!!! I’ll get you some bubble wrap for your pickup truck.

afraid_of_zombies,

It wasnt my pickup truck

just_ducky_in_NH,

I work in a public school, and vaping is a big problem. I don’t know what is in the vapes, but when the students come back from the bathroom their eyes are red with dilated pupils, they can barely talk, and they fall asleep at their desk within ten minutes. It makes me nervous how lightly the kids take it.

Daxtron2,

damn someone gave them the fent cart

skulblaka,
@skulblaka@startrek.website avatar

Those kids are smoking weed.

Ross_audio,

Agreed.

afraid_of_zombies,

That doesn’t sound like a nicotine vape to me.

Ross_audio,

That’s definitely weed.

DARbarian,
@DARbarian@lemmy.world avatar

If it has any visible effect, that ain’t nicotine lmao

Xariphon,

School logic.

kick_out_the_jams,

During the pandemic, HALO noted on its website that monitoring indoor air quality was an approved use for federal COVID relief money.

A leading provider, HALO Smart Sensors, sells 90% to 95% of its sensors to schools. The sensors don’t have cameras or record audio but can detect increases in noise in a school bathroom and send a text alert to school officials, said Rick Cadiz, vice president of sales and marketing for IPVideo, the maker of the HALO sensors.

The sensors are marketed primarily for detecting vape smoke or THC but also can monitor for sounds such as gunshots or keywords indicating possible bullying.

I don't know that I'd trust a non-microphone sensor to be good enough to actually identify keywords, but you could probably tell if people were yelling or something.

ElderWendigo,

My highschool friends and I would have relished the opportunity to fuck with administration acting on input from devices like this. Hack the planet.

ItsAFake,

Me: Climbs up so I’m quarter of an inch away from it

Also me:

https://media3.giphy.com/media/5xtDarE6xDVfXhudrVK/giphy.gif

neptune,

I can kind of see why there’s a purpose for punishing cigarette usage at schools. I don’t think vaping is harmless, but it’s not like vaping in the bathroom is causing an uncleanable mess or contributing to second hand smoke… I see why vaping is banned in schools but just like throw her vape away and stop there.

dmtalon, (edited )

So, if the point of this story is schools are spending money they received for COVID-19 on vape detectors/surveillance , then they should focus on that, and the misuse of those funds. That seems like a story that should have follow up.

If they’re trying to make me feel bad because Aaliyah got in trouble for doing something the school has a zero tolerance policy for, that’s probably not going to happen. By high school you should have a pretty good grasp on how rules work. The story seems to really focus on this kid being punished for doing something she was not supposed to be doing. I am not going to comment on whether the punishment fit the crime, there’s not enough detail about that in the story.

I have a 13yo, and I do not want them picking up or being around smoking/vaping at all. I’m OK if the school has both a zero tolerance policy for vaping with progressively harsher consequences for 2nd, 3rd offenses. I’m quite OK if smoking/vaping is kept far away from school grounds.

520,

By high school you should have a pretty good grasp on how rules work

By high school you should also have a pretty good grasp on how the punishment should fit the crime and how zero tolerance policies go way fucking overboard.

dmtalon,

That was part of the problem with the story. How many times had this person been caught? The story doesn’t include that info. Kids push back, so the consequences need to be such that they are harsh enough to deter, without obviously ruining their lives. Seems that Ailiyah still got her scholarship, and that it mostly impacted her being able to participate in extracurricular activities in school

520,

That was part of the problem with the story. How many times had this person been caught?

Considering she was already student council president and captain of a debate team and legal minimum punishments were enacted, I would guess first time.

dmtalon,

Ya, so this is apnews… If they’re going to talk about these consequences and how she was impacted the reader shouldn’t have to guess about details that matter.

520,

Okay, so how many times do you think a student has to be caught vaping for even half of these things to be justified?

dmtalon,

My comment was about how in my opinion apnews did a pretty poor job with that story overall. I’m not a school administer so I have no desire to try to work out what appropriate high school punishments for various instances of breaking rules should be. I stand by my original comment on that subject.

“I am not going to comment on whether the punishment fit the crime, there’s not enough detail about that in the story.”

Edit: I will say this, The consequences must not have been harsh enough to stop her from going into the bathroom and vaping. And if they weren’t, how bad do you have to make the punishment before her, an apparently smart kid, stop breaking the zero tolerance rule?

girlfreddy,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

Educational institutions deciding to actively police students just 'cause is a load of BS.

Who died and made them king over children?

doublejay1999,
@doublejay1999@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah ! Skool sucks! Kids rule !

PopOfAfrica,

Unfortunately in the United States, the primary school system is more of a babysitting service than it is an actual educational institution.

afraid_of_zombies,

Does no one except me like the school their children go to?

Xariphon,

School logic

SquishyPandaDev,
@SquishyPandaDev@yiffit.net avatar

And the school to prison pipeline is expanded. Absolutely sickening.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

When I was in high school in the 90s, the school had an area of the campus (outside) where kids could smoke. It was just an obvious thing to have at the time because half the student body smoked anyway.

MirthfulAlembic,
@MirthfulAlembic@lemmy.world avatar

My high school’s designated smoking area was a stuffy room in the basement with zero ventilation. I’m pretty sure they had to completely demo the walls, floors, and ceilings when they wanted to convert it into a classroom, and it probably still reeked for years.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

There was a private school near my house that had something similar. They called it The Dungeon.

LinkOpensChest_wav,
@LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

My school had this same thing. You could look out any window facing a certain direction between class, and you’d see a bunch of kids smoking.

Cigarettes were also like $1.25 back then. I hated winter because groups of kids would hotbox in someone’s car and come in smelling super strong, to the point that it was a bit much even for me, a more covert smoker. I can still smell that in my mind.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

What’s funny is that the school decided to become a ‘tobacco free campus’ my senior year, so everyone just walked across the street where there was a city bus stop with a huge amount of room for people to stand and wait for a bus and smoked there instead. They basically moved the smoking area across the street.

LinkOpensChest_wav,
@LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

And to a school back then, that would have probably been just fine. They were a “tobacco free campus” as planned XD

Candelestine,

tbf, that’s exactly how freedom is supposed to work. We very specifically don’t want them to actually effectively force the student body to cease all tobacco activities. That’s draconian and should be unacceptable.

LinkOpensChest_wav,
@LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Yeah, there was a lot more freedom back then. It felt pretty good as a teenager having so much independence. In my school, we could even leave campus during our open periods. At some point, schools started seeing things like that as a liability for them. Can’t help but think things really started to change after Columbine.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I agree, but I also think there has to be more work done on prevention and cessation of teen smoking and vaping. I started smoking when I was 14 and I didn’t quit until I was in my mid-20s. And I’m one of the lucky ones. I was also only able to quit because I worked in an office where literally every other person smoked, so I got plenty of it second-hand.

THEDAEMON,

Second hand just puts you off

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

It didn’t for me. At least not at first. That whole office was one huge cloud of smoke at all times (and not just cigarette smoke). I was practically chain smoking just by being there.

THEDAEMON,

Hmm it always feels off for me but i do hate cigs in general so that must be it.

Magister,
@Magister@lemmy.world avatar

France, in the 80/90 in high school we smoked outside, in community college we smoked in corridor, and in university we smoked inside classrooms and lecture theatre/hall, incredible :-(

DerisionConsulting,

That’s awful, I hope things are better now.

Magister,
@Magister@lemmy.world avatar

oh yes they are, kids almost go to prison for vaping now! A lot of things have changed.

dmtalon,

My wife and I went to Europe (from the US) in 2018 (Italy, and Spain) and one of the most shocking things of the whole trip was just how much people in Europe smoke. Like EVERYWHERE, while we were in Spain we got to see the final MotoGP race of the season, and it was like being taken back 25 years when smoking was allowed inside restaurants etc… Everyone around us was smoking and I really didn’t care for that!

The rest of our trip was absolutely amazing!

Obi,
@Obi@sopuli.xyz avatar

You don’t need to go back that far even, I was smoking in my french high school in like 2004. But it was outside.

ares35,
ares35 avatar

it was around 1986 when the 'on campus' smoking area was shut down for us. but that didn't stop students or teachers from simply walking across the street. it didn't stop the students who just lit-up in the basement either--right at their lockers, even.

GorgeousDumpsterFire,

To bring that forward a generation, there was a period around 2013-2014 when vaping was brand new and schools hadn’t written any rules yet.

I remember kids vaping in class and some teachers being kinda okay with it, or at least turning a blind eye. Granted, only like 1 or 2 people in the school had vapes.

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