As vaping becomes increasingly popular among B.C. youth, Spencer Middle School is taking things into their own hands by hosting a vaping workshop for parents.
“Kids will find a way somehow, somewhere to do a behaviour that they’re interested and curious about,” said Cindy Andrew, the healthy schools’ consultant at Sooke School District. “So is it happening before and after school and in school washrooms, etc? Quite likely.”
For months, doctors have been warning people about the dangers associated with vaping.
“There is not just one type of disease you can get from e-cigarettes,” said Dr. Matthew Stanbrook, Canadian Medical Association Journal editor, last week.
It’s easy for students to use them and some of them may even discretely vape in the classroom.
“Part of the intrigue of vaping is these funky devices that you use, and some of them could be like a USB stick, very innocuous,” said Andrew. “You’d look at it and you wouldn’t think it was that.”
Twenty-one per cent of students aged 12 to 17 have vaped with nicotine according to a recent study from McCreary Centre Society. This statistic includes students in middle school, and Andrew said this is why Spencer Middle School has teamed up with Island Health to host the workshop on Thursday evening.
“[It’s] an opportunity to learn more, almost a bit of a vaping 101,” she explained. “What’s it about? Why should we care? What’s the big deal?”
This workshop, Andrew added, is the first of several.
Jasmine Bala
