News Photo by Julie Goldberg Alpena High School Principal Tom Berriman shows different vaping products school officials have confiscated from students in this recent photo.

ALPENA — Vaping is becoming so popular among teens that students at Hillman Jr./Sr. High School called one set of school bathrooms “vapenation” in the 2017-18 school year, Principal Bill Lake said.

The growing popularity — Northeast Michigan school leaders say the trend has become an epidemic in school hallways — comes as health officials having linked vaping to a dozen deaths and hundreds of illnesses across the country and as multiple states, including Michigan, crack down on fruity flavors that critics say entice youth.

On Friday, Michigan reported its first confirmed death related to vaping, saying an adult male had died Oct. 2 but providing no further information.

In state surveys in the 2018-19 school year, 13% of middle schoolers and 36% of high schoolers said they’d used a vaping product in the 30 days before the survey was taken, according to the most recent data available from the Michigan Department of Education. In Presque Isle County, 13% of middle schoolers and 25% of high schoolers said they’d vaped that year.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 4.9 million middle and high school students nationwide were vape users in 2018, up from the 3.6 million in 2017. Several vaping products, also known as electronic cigarettes, contain nicotine, an addictive drug commonly found in cigarettes, cigars, and other tobacco products.

Northeast Michigan school districts are working to combat the problem by hanging informational posters in school hallways, handing out brochures, talking about it in health classes, and cracking down on students caught with vaping devices at school.

Lake, the Hillman principal, said he eventually had to lock the bathrooms at his junior-senior high school so students couldn’t hide in there to vape.

School officials said they need help from home.

“This is a problem that is not just something the schools can combat, that law enforcement can combat, that politicians can combat,” Alpena High School Principal Tom Berriman said. “Parents have to be a part of this conversation, because they’re on the front lines.”

HEALTH ISSUES

Though vaping has been advertised as a safer alternative to smoking tobacco, state health officials reported Friday that, since August, 30 confirmed or probable vaping-related lung injury cases have been reported in Michigan, in people ranging in age from 16 to 67. As of Oct. 1, 1,080 cases in 48 states and one territory had been reported nationwide, including 18 deaths from 15 states.

It isn’t yet clear precisely how vaping caused the illnesses. Health officials are looking into whether the illnesses have been linked to THC, the chemical in marijuana that causes users to get high, in the vaping products. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 75% of cases involved users of vape productings that included marijuana.

Several states have declared health emergencies and, in Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer moved to prohibit the sale of flavored vaping products, which she says attract children. Vaping retailers have sued to overturn the ban.

The news of deaths and illness “might scare a few people who are scared of vaping or getting caught with it in the first place, just like cigarettes,” Alcona High School freshman Madison Donovan said. “I don’t think it’s going to deter people off of it.”

Berriman, the Alpena High principal, said vaping is a status thing among teenagers, and they eventually become addicted.

“We’re starting to see the effects of it, and the group of people that are most impacted by this are teenagers, and some of the research is starting to come,” Berriman said. “I think, when it’s all said and done, based on the little amount of research we have, this is going to be more of a health risk than smoking.”

Donovan said she’s heard stories of kids sneaking off during sporting events or in the middle of the school day to vape. She said students who vape probably know about the health issues, but don’t care, because they think it’s better than smoking.

‘IT’S AN EPIDEMIC’

Alcona High freshman Rose Schopfer said some students vape because they think it’s safe and can’t hurt them.

“They are probably under the false pretense that they are safe,” Schopfer said.

Vaping was the most commonly used tobacco product among middle and high schoolers in 2018, the CDC reports.

School administrators know students who are addicted to vaping. Alcona High Principal Edwin Barber said said students have approached school officials there, saying they have a problem and need to quit.

The school then figures out how to help those students.

“Our goal is to make sure that we don’t have kids vaping, because who knows what the long-term effect could be for these kids,” Barber said.

Lake, of Hillman, said some students feel like they can’t make it through the day without vaping.

“I think there’s a quite a few people that think it’s better than smoking,” he said. “I think that what’s in the news right now is starting to open people’s eyes.”

Health classes are incorporating vaping into curriculum now, and administrators are handing out brochures and putting up posters to let students know vaping can cause serious health issues.

“Over-usage is still going to lead to significant health issues,” Berriman said. “It’s an epidemic.”

‘TRYING TO GET OUT IN FRONT’

Vaping isn’t allowed in schools, but students still find ways to do it, even if it means getting caught and disciplined with an out-of-school suspension.

Suspensions for Northeast Michigan school districts range from two days to five days for a first offense.

At Alpena High, students receive a suspension, but, when they come back to school, they complete a reentry meeting with Jesse Pattison, student success facilitator, to discuss how the student can be successful when they come back.

Along with a suspension, students receive a civil infraction, similar to a speeding ticket, for underage vaping. Federal laws prohibit minors from purchasing and using any vaping device or product.

Nick Hein, Rogers City Area Schools superintendent and middle/high school principal, said it’s not new that adolescents are doing things they shouldn’t do, but vaping is hard to detect, because there’s often no smoke, residue, or smell.

“It’s one of those problems where we’re just trying to get out in front and make sure we educate the students as much as possible so that they understand what they’re doing to themselves and to their health,” Barber, the Alcona High principal, said.

‘WE HAVE TO COME TOGETHER’

School administrators say parents have to be involved with the vaping epidemic.

“We have to come together to work on this, because it’s an epidemic, and almost every time that we nailed a kid and had a conversation with the parent, (it’s a problem) that they have been oblivious to,” Berriman, the Alpena High principal, said.

Hein, of Rogers City, said staff members have to be careful when handing out bathroom passes and students have to say something if they suspect that another student is vaping.

“You’re doing that person a favor, you’re looking out for their best interest,” Hein said of students who talk to adults about vaping classmates.

Pattison, the Alpena High student success facilitator, said parents need to educate themselves more about what vaping devices look like, how they’re used, and how easy they are to hide.

Berriman said vape products can look like an Apple watch or even be incorporated into sweatshirts.

“That is why this is a problem,” Berriman said. “Every time we adapt what we’re doing to what the kids are doing, they can go online and buy.”

“The best remedy is just parents being involved with their kids,” Hein said, “paying attention to who they’re hanging out with and what they’re doing after school, noticing changes in behaviors and being active with it.”

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.

Vaping, by the numbers

13%: Share of middle schoolers across Alpena, Montmorency, and Alcona counties who said they vaped in the previous 30 days in the 2018-19 school year *

36%: Share of Alpena, Montmorency, and Alcona county high schoolers who said they’d vaped that year

13%: Share of high schoolers in Presque Isle County who said they vaped in the previous 30 days in the 2018-19 school year

25%: Share of middle schoolers in Presque Isle County who said they vaped in the previous 30 days in the 2018-19 school year

4.9 million: Number of middle and high school students nationwide who were vape users in 2018, up from the 3.6 million in 2017

* NOTE: Two of five school districts in Alpena, Montmorency, and Alcona counties participated in the state surveys that year. All schools in Presque Isle County participated. The state does not identify which schools participated.

Sources: Michigan Department of Education, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention