Seymour High School
In the wake of an incident during which students allegedly used a vaping device to smoke marijuana, Seymour school officials have placed severe restrictions on bathroom access at the high school.
Meanwhile, parents are being encouraged to attend a forum on vaping scheduled for Wednesday night at Derby High School. Details are later in this story.
Last week a 15-year-old student at Seymour High School was charged with risk of injury to a minor, possession of drug paraphernalia, and illegal distribution of marijuana after allegedly bringing a vaping device and liquid marijuana to school. A few students took hits off the device and complained of feeling ill.
The incident triggered a “mass-casualty response” by Seymour emergency responders, according to a letter from the school sent to parents Friday.
Several students were sent to the hospital but no serious injuries were reported.
The incident took place in a high school bathroom, a popular spot for wrongdoing, according to the school’s letter.
“This (the vaping incident) combined with large numbers of students hanging out in our bathrooms, vandalizing and vaping in our bathrooms has forced us to take drastic measures,” according to the letter.
Those measures include:
- Locking all bathrooms at the high school, except one on the first floor
- No more than two students are allowed inside a bathroom while class is in session
- No more than four students are allowed inside a bathroom during “passing time” (time between one class to the next)
- Bathroom passes are required, which will help faculty track how many students are in bathrooms
There are also faculty members assigned to make sure the bathrooms aren’t being torn apart and that no one is vaping.
“The faculty members assigned to monitor the bathroom will be listening for loud noises and smelling for vaping/smoking odors coming from the bathroom,” the letter reads.
“It is very disappointing that we have to take these measures because of the lack of maturity and respect some members of the student body have for our school and community.”
The complete letter is embedded below (article continues after the document):
Vaping, first marketed as an alternative to cigarettes, has become increasingly popular in the U.S. among young people.
“Among high school students, current e‑cigarette use increased from 1.5 percent (220,000 students) in 2011 to 20.8 percent (3.05 million students) in 2018,” according to a report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The New York Times reported last month that the FDA is trying to restrict e‑cigarette sales to teenagers. The issue is that many of the products “vaped” in the devices contain nicotine.
There are also worries over the use of vaping and long-term health.
Seymour High School isn’t the only school with a bathroom vaping problem. A middle/high school in Massachusetts last year installed vape detectors in the bathrooms to manage the problem, according to a report from a CBS-TV affiliate in Boston.
Those units can cost almost $1,000 a pop, according to this article from The Boston Globe.
Parents who want to learn more about the latest smoking trend could attend a “parent education night” scheduled for Wednesday, April 10 at Derby High School.
The program is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. and end at 8:30 p.m.
A flyer for the program promises to deliver the “hard truth” about “the potential serious effects vaping can have on the developing brain and overall health.”
A similar program is being planned for a later date in Seymour.
Last week’s bathroom vaping incident was picked up by media outlets in New York City and Boston.
Seymour First Selectman Kurt Miller was annoyed last week at the television coverage, saying some of the reports unfairly lumped together several school incidents together — the January arrest of a former high school student for allegedly sexually assaulting a fellow student in a locker room, the arrest of the high school’s vice-principal for driving drunk, and the arrest of a Seymour Middle School student for allegedly threatening the school — in an effort to make the town look bad.
Miller said town officials have “begged” television news outlets to cover positive stories in town, to no avail.
“I’m extremely annoyed (at) the fact that reporters who have no idea about Seymour, have no idea about who we are, what we’re about,” Miller said. “To be quite honest I guess half of them have never been to Seymour before in their life. (They are) suddenly showing up with cameras talking about how bad Seymour is, how bad its school system is,” Miller said.
The First Selectman complained about the helicopter coverage of Seymour by local media — reporters drop in to only cover negative stories.
“Where were these same reporters two years ago when we had the top 11 kids at Seymour High School went to either MIT or an Ivy League school?” Miller asked.
Miller made his comments during a video taping of “Navel Gazing: The Valley Indy Podcast.”
The video is embedded below. Fast forward to the 24-minute mark to hear Miller voice his displeasure.
