Suburban school district joins vaping lawsuits
More than 250 nationwide take part in legal action
Maine Township High School District 207 has joined more than 250 school districts across the country in filing suit against a popular producer of vaping products that have been especially attractive to teens.
Schools in the Franklin Park, Evanston, Winnetka and Barrington areas and others also are participating.
The Board of Education of District 207, which includes all or portions of Park Ridge, Niles, Morton Grove, Harwood Heights and Des Plaines, voted unanimously on Jan. 4 to participate in federal lawsuits led by California-based Frantz Law Group against Juul Labs, which produces vaping devices and nicotine cartridges.
Attorney William Shinoff of Frantz Law Group said the suit attempts to hold the company accountable for marketing practices that made its products attractive to minors and easy for them to obtain, while downplaying the harm caused by the flavored nicotine pods, which are smoked.
The litigation also attempts to recoup school districts’ expenses related to addressing rampant inschool vaping, from personnel costs to installing vaping detectors in restrooms and other areas to deter the practice, Shinoff said.
“With this case, all of these school districts are stepping up to hold the company accountable, not only so they can be financially prepared to handle this (vaping) matter into the future, but to show the company that enough’s enough,” Shinoff said. “This is one way we can stop these bad acts.”
The suit seeks monetary rewards to help schools pay for the costs that come with vaping so that taxpayers are not footing the bill, Shinoff said.
“They are looking for funding for vape detectors, educational programs to be able to educate students and parents on the harmful effects of vaping, and also funding for staffing,” he said. “They need to be able to have staffing for supervision purposes.”
According to the contract approved by the District 207 Board of Education, the district will incur legal costs only if monetary damages are awarded. If there is no monetary reward, there is no cost to the district, per the agreement.
District 207 joins 16 other suburban Chicago school districts represented by Frantz Law Group in lawsuits against Juul Labs. These include Evanston Township High School District 202, New Trier Township High School District
203, Barrington High School District 220, Leyden Township High School District 212, and Evanston/ Skokie School District 65, Shinoff said.
While it is possible that financial damages could be recovered, that is not the primary reason the district is pursuing the litigation, said District 207 Supt. Ken Wallace.
“I think this lawsuit gives us an avenue to say ‘This isn’t right,’ ” he said. “People need to be held accountable and we will be part of the process to do just that.”
Even so, Wallace acknowledged that responding to student vaping has come with a cost in terms of time and money. When a student is seen vaping, the incident must be documented, parents are contacted and disciplinary and
educational measures are taken, the superintendent explained.
“What we found with many kids was that the kids were hooked on it,” he said of the vaping products. “So it was a lot of work with families on an individual basis.”
The district’s exact expenses are “really hard to calculate,” Wallace said, but many hours of staff time have been spent dealing with the vaping problem, particularly in 2016 and 2017 when it was especially widespread.
“Most of the cost incurred would fall into the duties of staff, which took them away from higher priority and more important things,” he said.
Students caught vaping or in possession of these products have also been
subject to municipal citations from the Park Ridge and Des Plaines Police Departments. Students have the choice of paying a $500 fine or taking part in an educational program aimed at addressing the impacts of vaping.
Wallace said he is hopeful that the Juul Labs litigation will lead to increased government regulations for vaping companies.
“Beyond the monetary piece of this, I hope there’s a political piece,” he said. “I’m not for unnecessary regulation, but there are some regulations, rules and laws that do matter. This is a case study of that.”
Juul Labs did not respond to a message seeking comment on the addition of Maine Township High School District 207 to the federal lawsuit. The com
pany has, however, issued statements on its website that it has taken actions to combat the use and access of its products by minors, including suspending the sale of certain fruit and creme-flavored pods in stores, strengthening ageverification software on its website, and ending its Facebook and Instagram presence.
The Illinois attorney general’s office in December 2019 filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against Juul Labs, alleging the company targeted its products to minors. Similar lawsuits have been filed in other states.
In its lawsuit, Frantz Law Group is representing 260 school districts in 21 states, Shinoff said.