It’s something that can be found swarming in the air. It can be found in several places it shouldn’t be found, including a school bathroom or a public restaurant. Many people can carry the sources of it, but few know it’s highly dangerous to anyone who inhales it.

Vaporizer & Electronic Cigarette users have been growing and growing over the past few years, especially including high school students. Students have been finding several ways to use them in public environments, where they are not necessarily supposed to be used. Despite the several posters Freedom has hung in many restrooms, stating facts on how vaping can harm one’s health, and the student-made posters hung in the hallways, many people continue to vape anyways.

The growth of teenagers and high schoolers using vaporizers and electronic cigarettes has rose to one out of every five people, according to HealthDay.com. The constant rising numbers of users has not only affected everyday lifestyles and health, but can be found in high schools.

In the current 2018-2019 school year, several people at Freedom have gotten in trouble for taking advantage of the restroom for vaping purposes. This lead to several actions the school has made to attempt to spread awareness on the situation.

Found in several of the men and women’s bathrooms, posters from WhatsInAVape.com have been hung, sharing different quotes and facts about vaping. As an example, found in one of the women’s restrooms, a poster hung reads “Strangely enough, some people come in here to put crap into their bodies,” and continues to say “Vapes can contain some of the same cancer-causing chemical found in cigarettes.”

Walking the hallways of the school, other student made posters have been hung trying to demote vaporizer and e-cigarette users as well. One poster hung by the student center reads “Juuls are not cool,” as another found in the hallway demonstrates what lungs look like before and after vaping.

During the week of April 8, school resource officer Tom Liberty presented to each grade level the effects of vaping and the overall addiction of nicotine.  

“I think that the school’s efforts to prevent juuling may work, but to be honest I’m not sure. Ideally, people will see these posters, they will hear about the consequences of juuling and they will be discouraged from juuling; but in reality, people will still be driven by what they want to do,” an anonymous student said. “And anyway, nicotine is addicting; how often is it that a smoker, or in this case, a person who vapes, actually stops smoking, despite whether they want to quit or not?”

Overall, the number of vaporizer users and e-cigarette users continue to rise every day. How will this growing problem affect schools in the future?