Broward Schools part of lawsuit

Districts across the US suing vaping companies

Vaping companies are accused of targeting children with products designed to get them addicted to nicotine, and school districts across the country want those companies to pay the cost of educating students about the dangers they pose.

The Broward School Board is joining more than 100 government entities from across the country in a federal lawsuit demanding compensation for resources that have to be spent on counselors, monitoring and programming to curb the use of vaping products.

Broward is one of six school districts taking the lead on the case as “bellweathers” to represent the rest, said school district lawyer Eugene Pettis, of Haliczer Pettis & Schwamm in Fort Lauderdale.

More than five million middle and high school students use e-cigarettes, the lawsuit states. “Consistent with this national trend, youth in The School Board of Broward County, Florida … are using e-cigarettes at high rates — rates which continue to climb.” Vaping flavors such as mint and mango are among the

positive tests — indicating the prevalence of the disease — was higher than desired at 14%, he noted.

“It’s important to put that in context because I think a lot of people see cases I think they get really, really scared, and my message is fear is our enemy,” DeSantis said. “And I think the other thing that gets missed with the cases is the sheer number of people who are testing who aren’t sick. Because I think most people see cases and they think that many people are in the hospital.”

South Florida

South Florida, which accounts for 29% of Florida’s population, reported 5,102 new cases in the past day, or 41% of the daily total for the state, according to the state Department of Health.

Broward County: 1,150 new coronavirus cases were reported Sunday, bringing the total to 39,281. A total of 517 people have died, six more since Saturday.

Palm Beach County: 740 new cases were reported, bringing the total to 25,785. A total of 693 people have died, 13 more since Saturday.

Miami-Dade County: 3,212 new cases, bringing the total to 84,238. A total of 1,318 people have died.