Vaping has ‘taken off ’ as Hamilton boards tasked with enforcing new measures
Measures could create more work for educators if they fail to deter students, school boards say
Hamilton’s two largest school boards say they are investigating how to implement and enforce new rules around vaping after the province announced new measures to crack down on the vice chairs say is a big problem in schools.
Vape detectors, cameras and other security upgrades are among the changes that could soon be implemented in Hamilton schools after the province announced $30 million in funding for school safety late last month.
Vaping has “taken off” in schools in recent years, said HamiltonWentworth District School Board chair Maria Felix Miller.
In 2021, nearly one in five students in grades 7 to 12 had used a vape in the last year, according to Public Health Ontario. By contrast, nearly one in 10 had smoked cigarettes, which have for decades declined in popularity.
More than a quarter of high school students reported vaping in the past year, the study found.
The Near North School Board reported a rise in vaping in the wake of the pandemic, and has said detectors in bathrooms have helped.
The HWDSB doesn’t have data to suggest a rise, Miller said, but vaping at school is a concern.
“What we’ve heard from staff and parents is that it is something that they would like addressed,” she said. “Vaping has sort of taken over as the vice of choice.”
The Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board doesn’t have data either, but chair Pat Daly, who has been in that role for decades, said he suspects use has increased in recent years. It’s most common in high school, but some elementary students vape, too.
“It’s a significant issue,” said Daly, who is also president of the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association. “I’ve heard that across the province.”
Vaping, along with cellphones, which were banned with few exceptions as part of the same April 28 Ministry of Education announcement, is a “big distraction” for students and teachers, Miller said.
“It’s a reason that kids are not in class. It’s a reason that they are lingering in bathrooms longer than they should be,” she said.
Some students have shared vaping also makes bathrooms “inhospitable” for other students, she said.
Under the new ministry policy, students caught with e-cigarettes on school property will have to surrender them, and parents will be notified “immediately,” the province said.
Boards say they’re in the process of reviewing the new rules and waiting for further information on funding. It’s unclear how many detectors boards will get, and when they will be installed. Neither board currently has any vape detectors, which are like smoke detectors, but detect vapour.
They are, however, governed by a municipal bylaw that prohibits smoking and vaping on and within 20 metres from school properties.
Students who don’t comply with board code of conduct, which includes complying with federal, provincial and municipal laws at school, are subject to progressive discipline that includes suspension.
Daly said proactive measures, including health and physical education, are the “first responses,” and support is offered to help students quit. Attempts are also made to determine why a student vapes, he said.
“Vapes are confiscated by the school administration and parents are contacted,” he said.
At both boards, repeated vaping typically results in consequences, including suspensions.
“The rules around this are pretty tight,” said HWDSB student trustee Thomas Lin. “Principals do walk around the school and check the bathrooms.”
Lin said the vaping trend isn’t as “catastrophic” as it’s being described. Unlike the stereotypical scene of “a bunch of buddies” bonding over substances, it’s often just one or two students vaping in spaces like bathrooms.
Anxiety and stress are key reasons students vape, he believes, and the province should consider doing more to address mental health.
“I feel like if a school invested more resources into making learning more accessible and fun, providing more support resources when students are going to reach for those substances, perhaps that’s more effective,” he said.
The December 2023 public health study also found that students who vaped were more likely to rate their mental health as “fair” or “poor.”
Lin said funds might also be better spent on facility improvement, such as installing air conditioning in schools without, especially as heat waves become more common.
A common response from students is that the installation of vape detectors in bathrooms isn’t proportionate to the problem.
“It’s a bit too much,” he said. The HWDSB has established a vaping task force, which has “started working on strategies,” to oversee the implementation of provincewide measures, education director Sheryl Robinson Petrazzini said in a May 3 letter. Planning will be done in consultation with staff, students, families and unions, she wrote.
Updates on policies and procedures will be communicated to families before the fall, she wrote.
Vape detectors are something Catholic board staff have been investigating for “some time,” Daly said, and implementation will come with challenges.
Boards hope detectors will deter students. But, if not, new measures may result in “a significant amount of additional work” for principals and teachers, who will have to monitor and deal with instances of vaping, Daly said.
“We obviously appreciate anything that centres student safety and keeping them in class learning,” Miller said. “But we want to be respectful of staff role.”
Daryl Jerome, president of the local bargaining unit for the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said it’s too soon to know how measures will affect teacher workload.
Questions related to expectations around enforcement linger, but standardization will make it easier for staff to enforce rules, Miller said.
A “multipronged approach” that includes education is an essential component to changing student behaviour, Miller said.
“A vaping detector isn’t going to be sufficient,” she said.
The work required in the coming months to curb vaping is “worth it,” Daly said.
“We need to be all in on … limiting or eliminating vaping from schools,” he said.