Under a Cloud at Lahainaluna

“I don’t feel pressured at all, I’m a good person, not a delinquent like them,” said a Lahainaluna sophomore when asked whether they felt pressured to vape by others. To the same question, a senior offered an anecdote: “I would get asked if I wanted to hit it but when I said no they weirdly congratulated me and said how good of a student I was while they still went on to continue vaping their flavored air.”

The vaping situation on our campus has been on everyone’s minds. But students who do and don't vape have opinions on the issue that you aren't likely to find on a poster. Most students are concerned, but they aren't sure how concerned to be or whether school leaders care. NOTE: given the sensitivity of the subject, many of the students interviewed preferred to remain anonymous. I refer to students by their favorite colors rather than their given names.

Lahainaluna has rules against vaping on campus. These rules are based on Hawaii’s administrative rules found in Chapter 19 of the Hawai’i Department of Education Administrative Rules Manual. Rules from Chapter 19 have been included in every LHS student planner and on the school website. Under “Chapter 19,” vapes and e-cigarettes fall under the class C offense sections of contraband and controlled substance use in this chapter. It reads that students may receive penalties such as suspension for 92 days for possession or being under the influence of controlled substances. See the whole text here.

Perspectives

Students who don’t vape also don't seem to care too much about vaping since, as one sophomore student, Baby Blue, said, “it’s just a normal occurrence now.” Another student, a sophomore I’ll call Rose Gold, added that they “really don’t like how it’s normalized, we even have presentations or lessons against vaping, I mean you're even writing an article on it too.” A significant portion of students shared this weariness about the prevalence of the issue.

Things started looking different when students were asked how they felt personally about vaping. A sophomore named Emerald stated, “I care but not really–not enough to report anything.” They added not a minute later, however, that “it doesn’t give the school a nice environment.” Other students like Crimson, a sophomore, reported feeling “threatened” by vaping students. Simply something upon groups of students hanging out in the bathrooms seemed to be the primary cause of “awkward situations” as Rose Gold said, “so I try to run out of there as fast as possible, I don't like their flavored air.”

Asked if a younger sibling or family member were to start vaping like him, Gray, a junior, replied a bit defensively, insisting that “that wouldn’t happen, they are too young for that.” “You know what, never mind, I don’t care, I’m done” they finally said before walking away.

When asked why they vaped and why specifically on campus, sophomore Yellow said, “I just feel good, it’s not that complicated” and “I do it anywhere so why not.” “Most people think vaping helps with the stress,” said Purple, a sophomore. “But the reason why they vape in school is because they have a feeling, the need to do it, feening.” Yellow and Purple said that people vape in the bathrooms for the obvious reason that “teachers are in class, so they aren’t in the bathrooms, and there are no cameras either. It's the one place you have the privacy to do what you want,” Purple said. Forest Green, a senior, said that in their opinion, vaping happens more often during breaks.

Who Cares?

Many students are sure that there is no solution to the problem. They complained that staff don’t care or that they don’t even know what’s going on. Purple claims that she vapes, but knows “it’s a problem.” But, she continued, “they,” that is, the administration, “just simply don’t care.” Dubious stories about students getting away with vaping circulate among students, but few of them seem credible. Black, a freshman, is sure that admin doesn’t care simply because of how many students he sees vaping—8 in the bathroom daily.

Nicole Heinlein, the freshman vice principal at Lahainaluna, confirmed that it is a problem they are working on. “We often get reports of students vaping in the bathrooms and students saying they don’t feel comfortable going into the bathroom because they are worried about being around people who are vaping,” she said. “I think this is affecting how other students feel about being on campus. And that’s a problem.”

Sophomore vice principal, Debralyn Arellano added that she thinks “there should be no vaping on campus, if there’s even one student vaping then that’s a problem.” “It makes me wonder if they are fully informed about what they are doing,” Ms. Arellano continued, “because from what I know nobody knows the long-term effects of vaping.”

“It makes me nervous,” said Ms. Heinlein, because students shouldn’t be “doing unhealthy and illegal things on campus.” “If students are breaking the law now as teenagers,” she said, “it makes me worry that they may continue to break the law later in life.”

Every Cloud…

On the topic of solutions, Ms. Heinlein reported that the administration had made informative posters “that we are gonna be putting up around campus and in bathrooms this summer, to educate students about vaping and options for quitting vaping. Ultimately, we are hoping that educating students on the dangers of vaping will cause them to think twice about it.” She said that vape smoke detectors had been “discussed,” but other vice principals from other schools doubted their effectiveness as well as their high cost: “if they don’t work well then it doesn’t seem like a good solution.”

Solutions volunteered by students revealed a wide variation in perspectives. A sophomore student, Pink, proposed a “scared straight program” but instead of prisoners “we do a face-to-face confrontation with people who have suffered from vaping.” Their friend Emerald questioned the idea, suggesting that “helping someone who doesn’t want help is just cruel.” To this, Baby Blue said “we could just smack’em in the head.” Purple suggested taking away their phones and vapes, so they sit in class with nothing, the torture of boredom.” She also suggested “more officers or have the staff be more strict.”

Multiple students suggested sensitive smoke detectors in the bathrooms, but one student was opposed to this idea. Green mentioned that “in my old school there were smoke detectors in the bathrooms but all that did was set an alarm off every week and drove students to find another way.” Another student suggested a compromise solution: a “green room” so that they can do what they want while also staying out of other people’s business.

Presented with Pink’s scared straight program, Arellano and Heinlein were on board. “Educating students and empowering them to make informed decisions is the most impactful thing we can do,” said Heinlein. “It would be wonderful to welcome guest speakers from the community to come in and have some sort of public service announcement.” Both reacted predictably to the “green room” proposal. Heinlein laughed and said “no way, nope. Plus, you have to be 21 years old to legally vape and no one on campus is 21 so absolutely not, nice try.”

Nobody knows when vaping on campus became a problem. Most speculate that it simply just transitioned from smoking to vaping when vapes became available. Arellano said “I started working at Lahainaluna in 2019, that’s when I learned what a vape was.” One thing is for certain, be it a student or an admin, everyone has opinions and everyone feels a responsibility to promote and maintain a safe and secure educational environment here at Lahainaluna High school.