Vape companies are facilitating students all around the world to smoke in class. Recently, I noticed a downward trend in school bathroom vaping at my high school. At first, I wondered, “Could the e-cigarette and vaping epidemic be over?” As I was thinking about this in my English class, I noticed smoke coming from my left. When I turned, I saw 5 kids all vaping in the middle of our lecture. I was astonished and soon realized what was happening. Vaping companies have yet again come up with an innovative way to target students and if officials don’t act quick, it could get a lot worse…

We are all very aware of the history of vaping companies marketing to kids. They enticed children with their goofy and harmless flavors but in the past few months, a new development has changed how vapes and vape products are marketed towards teens and more specifically students. The shape of the actual vape product has recently changed drastically since its popularization in 2019. What was once a stick or pen now looks more like a small ball with a tube to suck on. In addition, the rounded edges, small size, and mellow color scheme are all changes attempted to soften the perceived severity of smoking in the brains of impressionable adolescents. More importantly, the change in geometry is aimed to help students conceal vapes in the palm of their hands. The device is too small to be spotted, it produces little to no smoke, and emits a fruity odor. These factors have made it impossible for teachers to detect it and bring a stop to it. Unfortunately, students don’t even have to take a trip to the bathroom to hide it, they can simply just smoke in class. A common trick used by student smokers is to vape while pretending to cough. To the untrained eye, nothing happens. Spotting it requires time and energy that teachers should be devoting to education.

The consequences of this trend stretch far beyond just the perpetrators' health and wellbeing. Fellow students and classmates are affected by second hand smoke that they can’t avoid. Before, smokers congregated in the bathroom where the smoke didn’t travel far. As long as you stayed clear of the bathrooms, you avoided the smoke. Now, students are forced to inhale the vape and smoke in class. According to the American nonsmokers rights foundation, the effects of second hand inhalation can range from “exacerbating respiratory ailments like asthma, to constrict arteries which could trigger a heart attack”.

The classroom should be a place of education and a safe haven for those who want to learn. Vape companies are trying to infiltrate this space to maximize profits and teachers can’t stop this. Our educators are there to teach and enrich students, not to police and hyperfixate on a minority of students who cause problems for everyone else. Elected officials have to be made aware of this new development and implement rules to regulate the size and shape of vape devices. If we don’t try to stop this now, our kids will be smoking a banana flavored vape in class before they ever eat a real one.