Bathroom vape gangs - where are the SROs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It feels strange to say on one hand we need to raise expectations academically and then on the other to not enforce things like no vaping in the bathrooms. And to assume that kids are going to do it anyway so why bother trying. Either we are trying to hold kids to higher expectations or we are not. I think the previous poster was correct that disciplinary actions reflect poorly on the school so the school does not issue them. A classic case of you get what you measure.

Real question: What additional punishment do you want to see for vaping?

What currently happens is the student and parent are referred to mandatory substance abuse prevention classes and the student is give 1-3 days of in school suspension. Every child who is caught with a vape goes through this matrix. My admin is meticulous about scanning back through hallway footage to find evidence of kids hiding things up their sleeves and has been known to dig through trash cans to find suspected discarded paraphernalia when a kid is seen tossing something suspicious in the trash on camera. She's confiscated 100s of vapes this year.

There is still a widespread vaping issue.

As a teacher, I think the only realistic way to combat it is by having an adult monitor in every single bathroom between the hours of 8 and 3. I'm not sure if that's the best use of funds though--and I don't really want to imagine the type of person who signs up to be a "bathroom monitor for teenagers" for minimum wage.

[Anonymous]

Allow kids to go outside to vape.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Allow kids to go outside to vape.

LOL! I am a senior citizen and my brother is almost a decade older. We were talking the other day and he mentioned that there was an "approved" smoking area outside his high school. (This was before cancer warnings.) It was not allowed when I was in high school, but the bathrooms were definitely full of smoke.
Teachers did monitor the bathrooms in those days, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher in an FCPS high school and yes, it's bad here. However, I'm a parent in a different county and it's bad there too. I have teacher friends in still other counties and it's bad there, also. I'm not defending how we are dealing with it; FCPS is way too lenient on many, many things. I'm just trying to explain that it's not great anywhere around here.

Some schools have been closing bathrooms during the day to force more students to use a central location that can be better monitored. But with high school, only having one bathroom open isn't feasible for the amount of students we have. I truly think if we dealt with the issue with increased consequences, things would get better...but the county doesn't listen to us on things like that, unfortunately.

What can parents do that would make an impact? Legitimately interested to know, because my kids are in the same boat with the kids who hold it all day long. And this doesn’t work out well when on your period. The good kids shouldn’t have to suffer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They handle it the way they can. SROs are actual law enforcement officers and they cannot/will not get involved with low level stuff like that. They’re there for much more serious stuff. Vaping is an issue for school security officers/admin. In my school if the vape detector light goes off, everyone in the restroom gets hauled to the office to be searched. But then even if you didn’t have the vape you get hung up until you’re cleared so a lot of my students avoid the bathroom just to not deal with getting caught up in a vape sting. They’re managing it how they can but aside from a strip search before entering the school you just can’t preemptively catch all of this all of the time. The kids manage to hide it from their parents too.

I know they’re law enforcement! Um hello but if the majority of the student population is being held hostage to a few shitty kids, to the point where they can’t use the bathroom for 8 or so hours because they’re afraid, that’s not just small time stuff. The SROs should be charging them! Who cares if parents don’t know? The vape kids should be afraid to be vaping in schools for fear of getting in trouble and the admin and staff should care that kids collectively are unable to use the bathroom! I swear I feel like I’m taking crazy pills reading some of the things people say on here, no wonder we are where we are. They should shut the teacher bathrooms down too if students can’t use the student bathrooms and see how the staff likes it.

It’s funny that you think it’s an only a few kids. A lot of kids vape, including kids you would suspect in the slightest. I wouldn’t call them sh!tty. They’re kids doing stupid stuff. Hopefully their parents figure it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It feels strange to say on one hand we need to raise expectations academically and then on the other to not enforce things like no vaping in the bathrooms. And to assume that kids are going to do it anyway so why bother trying. Either we are trying to hold kids to higher expectations or we are not. I think the previous poster was correct that disciplinary actions reflect poorly on the school so the school does not issue them. A classic case of you get what you measure.

Real question: What additional punishment do you want to see for vaping?

What currently happens is the student and parent are referred to mandatory substance abuse prevention classes and the student is give 1-3 days of in school suspension. Every child who is caught with a vape goes through this matrix. My admin is meticulous about scanning back through hallway footage to find evidence of kids hiding things up their sleeves and has been known to dig through trash cans to find suspected discarded paraphernalia when a kid is seen tossing something suspicious in the trash on camera. She's confiscated 100s of vapes this year.

There is still a widespread vaping issue.

As a teacher, I think the only realistic way to combat it is by having an adult monitor in every single bathroom between the hours of 8 and 3. I'm not sure if that's the best use of funds though--and I don't really want to imagine the type of person who signs up to be a "bathroom monitor for teenagers" for minimum wage.

See my post at the top of page 2. It’s part of our IRP schedule. (Monitoring just outside the restroom.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It feels strange to say on one hand we need to raise expectations academically and then on the other to not enforce things like no vaping in the bathrooms. And to assume that kids are going to do it anyway so why bother trying. Either we are trying to hold kids to higher expectations or we are not. I think the previous poster was correct that disciplinary actions reflect poorly on the school so the school does not issue them. A classic case of you get what you measure.

Real question: What additional punishment do you want to see for vaping?

What currently happens is the student and parent are referred to mandatory substance abuse prevention classes and the student is give 1-3 days of in school suspension. Every child who is caught with a vape goes through this matrix. My admin is meticulous about scanning back through hallway footage to find evidence of kids hiding things up their sleeves and has been known to dig through trash cans to find suspected discarded paraphernalia when a kid is seen tossing something suspicious in the trash on camera. She's confiscated 100s of vapes this year.

There is still a widespread vaping issue.

As a teacher, I think the only realistic way to combat it is by having an adult monitor in every single bathroom between the hours of 8 and 3. I'm not sure if that's the best use of funds though--and I don't really want to imagine the type of person who signs up to be a "bathroom monitor for teenagers" for minimum wage.

See my post at the top of page 2. It’s part of our IRP schedule. (Monitoring just outside the restroom.)

Do teachers really have time to add this to their loads? They already get so little time to do their work. Now they have to be bathroom monitors, too?

Serious question: why is it that every time we need something done, we simply throw it on the teacher as one more duty? And then we wonder why grades aren’t done on time.

[Anonymous]

Opposing athletes were allegedly caught vaping in the bathrooms before their game at South County earlier this week. I don’t believe the kids told on them though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It feels strange to say on one hand we need to raise expectations academically and then on the other to not enforce things like no vaping in the bathrooms. And to assume that kids are going to do it anyway so why bother trying. Either we are trying to hold kids to higher expectations or we are not. I think the previous poster was correct that disciplinary actions reflect poorly on the school so the school does not issue them. A classic case of you get what you measure.

Real question: What additional punishment do you want to see for vaping?

What currently happens is the student and parent are referred to mandatory substance abuse prevention classes and the student is give 1-3 days of in school suspension. Every child who is caught with a vape goes through this matrix. My admin is meticulous about scanning back through hallway footage to find evidence of kids hiding things up their sleeves and has been known to dig through trash cans to find suspected discarded paraphernalia when a kid is seen tossing something suspicious in the trash on camera. She's confiscated 100s of vapes this year.

There is still a widespread vaping issue.

As a teacher, I think the only realistic way to combat it is by having an adult monitor in every single bathroom between the hours of 8 and 3. I'm not sure if that's the best use of funds though--and I don't really want to imagine the type of person who signs up to be a "bathroom monitor for teenagers" for minimum wage.

See my post at the top of page 2. It’s part of our IRP schedule. (Monitoring just outside the restroom.)

It's part of our IPR duty to monitor bathrooms too, but there isn't one adult per bathroom all day long. We are tasked in 45 minute increments to pop our heads into same sex restrooms and tell kids to get to class, but it's not enough. There are 4 of us every period with this task (block is split in half, 1m/1f teacher for each half) but the kids aren't stupid--they're really good at hiding it and avoiding us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Allow kids to go outside to vape.

LOL! I am a senior citizen and my brother is almost a decade older. We were talking the other day and he mentioned that there was an "approved" smoking area outside his high school. (This was before cancer warnings.) It was not allowed when I was in high school, but the bathrooms were definitely full of smoke.
Teachers did monitor the bathrooms in those days, though.

YEP my North Shore suburban Chicago high school, which was and still is one of the best high schools in the state (27 average ACT) had a smoking lounge. It really wasn't a lounge but a fenced off area adjacent to the east side of the building. An activist lawyer in town sued the school district claiming that not having a place to smoke violated the civil rights of students. The school district caved and set up the smoking area. There was of course far more than just tobacco being smoked in the lounge. It was not a place to idly walk by as students who did not smoke were often harassed or bullied. The lounge was en route to your assigned car in Drivers Ed (a well off school district) so for some it was difficult to avoid trouble.. I can see where a nice kid could be harassed in today's vape bathrooms. (I know I am old but I was assigned a light green Olds Cutlass to learn how to drive; I could have cared less about the smokers or the harassment because driving that car - and no it was not a 442 as we fantasized - was a sweet deal for a 16 year old).

Ironically the school district reversed itself in the 90's when sued by a parent lawyer in town that the smoking lounge negatively impacted student health. The school district immediately settled the claim by tearing down the smoking lounge. I don't think all of the kids smoking just as all of the kids vaping today are bad kids. These are addictive substances. Not at all good for your health and today's THC based products can be addictive and can lead to serious psychosis. But heck, having to smoke so badly being outside at 10 below 15 miles south of the Wisconsin line was a lousy use of scant free time and an exercise in misery.

The smoking lounge was not a personal space. Bathrooms are and should be a place of safety. Solutions are difficult without significant enforcement action, and no I am not referring to police or the criminal justice system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It feels strange to say on one hand we need to raise expectations academically and then on the other to not enforce things like no vaping in the bathrooms. And to assume that kids are going to do it anyway so why bother trying. Either we are trying to hold kids to higher expectations or we are not. I think the previous poster was correct that disciplinary actions reflect poorly on the school so the school does not issue them. A classic case of you get what you measure.

Real question: What additional punishment do you want to see for vaping?

What currently happens is the student and parent are referred to mandatory substance abuse prevention classes and the student is give 1-3 days of in school suspension. Every child who is caught with a vape goes through this matrix. My admin is meticulous about scanning back through hallway footage to find evidence of kids hiding things up their sleeves and has been known to dig through trash cans to find suspected discarded paraphernalia when a kid is seen tossing something suspicious in the trash on camera. She's confiscated 100s of vapes this year.

There is still a widespread vaping issue.

As a teacher, I think the only realistic way to combat it is by having an adult monitor in every single bathroom between the hours of 8 and 3. I'm not sure if that's the best use of funds though--and I don't really want to imagine the type of person who signs up to be a "bathroom monitor for teenagers" for minimum wage.

Perhaps Reid’s security battalion could do

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have the school designate the two most centrally located bathrooms as vape-free zones. Staff them all day and don’t tolerate vaping. The kids who don’t vape will have a viable option and the kids who do can continue to destroy their lungs on public property during the school day.

Great idea, maybe the last stall can be a safe use room, instead of tampons or pads there could be a needle dispenser, little straps to tourniquet, a sharps bin, and plenty of narcan too. They’re just going to use it anyway right? 🙄

That’s another topic. Here, we are talking about establishing a safe zone for kids who don’t vape.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our MS locks them in between and overlapping the beginning and end of periods. Teachers are stationed outside the restrooms when they are open. It has cut down on problems.

They should be open between classes to reduce how much class time students miss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They handle it the way they can. SROs are actual law enforcement officers and they cannot/will not get involved with low level stuff like that. They’re there for much more serious stuff. Vaping is an issue for school security officers/admin. In my school if the vape detector light goes off, everyone in the restroom gets hauled to the office to be searched. But then even if you didn’t have the vape you get hung up until you’re cleared so a lot of my students avoid the bathroom just to not deal with getting caught up in a vape sting. They’re managing it how they can but aside from a strip search before entering the school you just can’t preemptively catch all of this all of the time. The kids manage to hide it from their parents too.

I know they’re law enforcement! Um hello but if the majority of the student population is being held hostage to a few shitty kids, to the point where they can’t use the bathroom for 8 or so hours because they’re afraid, that’s not just small time stuff. The SROs should be charging them! Who cares if parents don’t know? The vape kids should be afraid to be vaping in schools for fear of getting in trouble and the admin and staff should care that kids collectively are unable to use the bathroom! I swear I feel like I’m taking crazy pills reading some of the things people say on here, no wonder we are where we are. They should shut the teacher bathrooms down too if students can’t use the student bathrooms and see how the staff likes it.

How refreshing. Yet another person who thinks students and teachers should be treated equally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It feels strange to say on one hand we need to raise expectations academically and then on the other to not enforce things like no vaping in the bathrooms. And to assume that kids are going to do it anyway so why bother trying. Either we are trying to hold kids to higher expectations or we are not. I think the previous poster was correct that disciplinary actions reflect poorly on the school so the school does not issue them. A classic case of you get what you measure.

Real question: What additional punishment do you want to see for vaping?

What currently happens is the student and parent are referred to mandatory substance abuse prevention classes and the student is give 1-3 days of in school suspension. Every child who is caught with a vape goes through this matrix. My admin is meticulous about scanning back through hallway footage to find evidence of kids hiding things up their sleeves and has been known to dig through trash cans to find suspected discarded paraphernalia when a kid is seen tossing something suspicious in the trash on camera. She's confiscated 100s of vapes this year.

There is still a widespread vaping issue.

As a teacher, I think the only realistic way to combat it is by having an adult monitor in every single bathroom between the hours of 8 and 3. I'm not sure if that's the best use of funds though--and I don't really want to imagine the type of person who signs up to be a "bathroom monitor for teenagers" for minimum wage.

See my post at the top of page 2. It’s part of our IRP schedule. (Monitoring just outside the restroom.)

It's part of our IPR duty to monitor bathrooms too, but there isn't one adult per bathroom all day long. We are tasked in 45 minute increments to pop our heads into same sex restrooms and tell kids to get to class, but it's not enough. There are 4 of us every period with this task (block is split in half, 1m/1f teacher for each half) but the kids aren't stupid--they're really good at hiding it and avoiding us.

PP you quoted here. We do sit outside the restrooms.