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Schools across the country are using surveillance technology to catch middle school and high school students vaping, which can land students in legal trouble.
In Texas, the minimum punishment for a student caught vaping in the Tyler School District is 30 days in jail at an alternative school where the student attends classes but does not attend classes. However, students could be cited for misdemeanors, fined, or even charged with felonies if their e-cigarettes contain THC. Associated Press.
The most common devices are cameras and sensors programmed to detect e-cigarette mist and THC. Some sensors can also detect certain words that suggest bullying or monitor sounds such as gunshots.
Rick Cadiz, vice president of sales and marketing for the company IPVideo, said the sensors sold by HALO Smart Sensors do not have cameras and do not record audio, but they do reduce noise levels in school restrooms. can be detected and send a text to alert school officials. That’s what makes the HALO sensor.
“What the school district and we are looking at is this is trying to stop the use of e-cigarettes in schools, but we don’t want a $1,000 paperweight that schools won’t invest in other uses, right?” Cadiz said. Associated Press. “We want to make it a long-term investment.”
Schools are allowed to use federal funds from the coronavirus pandemic and money from the $440 million Juul Labs lawsuit to pay for the devices. The pandemic funding was used because the HALO device also monitors indoor air quality, which was considered an appropriate use of funding.
Some school districts, such as one in California, have found that the sensors are so good and go off so often that it’s not worth the time and effort to watch surveillance video to catch the culprit.
Students also objected to the surveillance devices, with some sharing tips on how to evade the sensors, such as smoking vape pens behind clothing to hide the fog. Other students have pushed back, arguing that Texas’ type of punishment goes too far.
Click here to read the full Washington Examiner article
“The people who create these policies and do these things have the ability to sit in rooms and walk around campus and see the outcomes and results of the policies that they create to make sure that the policies are actually working. There’s no way to do that, because it’s not really working,” Tyler High said. said Aaliyah Iglesias, a graduate of the school who was caught vaping while competing on the debate team. “The repercussions I faced were terrible and I will never do anything like that again.”
Iglesias was forced to resign as the school’s student body president, withdraw from the National Honor Society, resign as captain of the debate team, and attend an alternative school for 30 days. However, she was still allowed to walk to her graduation, go to prom, remain in most clubs at school, and maintain her college scholarship.
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