Oak Park and River Forest High School is looking for ways to tackle vaping on campus with the help of vaping detectors.
During the June 6 committee of the whole board meeting, David Narain, assistant principal of operations, presented a security update, which included information on vaping at the high school.
According to Narain, the district used vape sensors placed in four high-traffic restrooms, two boys’ restrooms and two in girls’ restrooms.
The data showed that there was an average of 102.3 hits per week, with about 58% of hits coming from the boys’ restrooms, and 42% from the girls’ restrooms. That’s 21.2 hits per day, with 12.4 hits coming from boys’ bathrooms and 8.9 hits from girls’ bathrooms.
Exactly what students are smoking isn’t clear.
According to Narain, the detectors do not break down what is detected, solely that smoke or fumes were detected.
After smoke or fumes are detected, an alert would go off to notify security staff and a camera, located outside the bathrooms, would be triggered to start recording.
“An audible alarm will sound if someone tries to tamper with the device,” Narain said.
Despite the decline of e-cigarette use among high school students – from 14.1% in 2022 to 10.0% in 2023 – vaping is still a concern.
According to the CDC’s “Tobacco Product Use Among U.S. Middle and High school Students- National Youth Tobacco Survey 2023,” 22.2% of U.S. middle school and high school students reported using “any tobacco product,” with e-cigarettes remaining the most commonly used tobacco product among adolescents.
“Among middle school and high school students who currently use e-cigarettes, 25.2% used e-cigarettes daily, and 89.4% used flavored e-cigarettes,” the report’s authors said.
E-cigarettes have been the most commonly used tobacco product among adolescents since 2014.
“Vaping is an epidemic across the entire country,” Narain said. “I haven’t spoken with anybody in any district that has solved this issue.”
Addressing vaping and smoking in the bathrooms is the only recommendation from the campus safety procedures update that came with an established cost.
To purchase and install vape detectors in every student restroom would cost the district approximately $140,372 and has been included in the 2025 school year budget. However, the item was brought before the board as a discussion item and Narain said it would not be brought back to the board for a vote at this time.
“We have committed to further researching the use of the product in other school districts,” Narain told Wednesday Journal.
Board president Tom Cofsky said he agreed with continuing to gather information on how successful vape detection programs have been in other districts.
“There is really no guarantee that the system really addresses the problem,” Narain said.
The product would only be detecting that vaping is happening, said Narain, adding that there is a chance that behavior is just redirected to a different location on campus.
But many school districts across the country have already begun to install or have announced their plans to install vape detectors.
According to Education Week, in 2023 the Montgomery County school district in Maryland announced they would pilot detectors in five of the 26 high schools in the district. According to the article, the district, one of the largest in the country, planned to use an expected financial settlement with Juul, an e-cigarette manufacturer, to finance the purchase of the detectors, a move adopted by other districts across the country.
Juul reached settlements with states and school districts across the country, including an approximate $67.6 million settlement with the state of Illinois, who sued Juul in 2019 for marketing harmful nicotine products to minors.
Narain said that vaping, “at its root,” is a social emotional concern. According to Narain, there are already initiatives at the high school to tackle vaping from a “social emotional learning” lens.
Students caught by the detector would have to be subjected to a behavior education plan, which would include serving an in-school reflection, said Lynda J. Parker, assistant superintendent and principal at OPRF.
“There is a curriculum through 3rd Millennium Classroom [an organization that provides evidence-based online prevention and intervention courses for various categories including nicotine, alcohol, and cannabis and other drugs] that students do, so there is some education as well as the use of a way back in,” Parker said. “There is the social emotions piece that we do give to the students if they are detected in this.”
But the school needs to do something, said parents in the community.
“Many students vape at OPRF and it is not a priority for the staff,” said Gail Gearhart, a community member. “The students always smoke in the bathrooms. No one monitors this. For the teachers, it’s not their job and they turn a blind eye to the problems. Hall monitors are very spread out and they only really have a reaction when there is a fight. The kids at OPRF get away with vaping and there are no consequences.”
But the effects can be really damaging, said a former OPRF parent who pulled their child from the high school after they were allegedly introduced to vaping and marijuana in the bathrooms during passing periods. The parent asked for their name to be withheld to protect their child’s identity.
“I think she had a ‘hit’ before almost every class,” the parent said. “This greatly impacted her mental health and I pulled her from the school. It is inconceivable to me that we pay so much in taxes and can’t hold kids accountable to using illicit substances in school.”
Aaron McManus, community member, said having conversations with students about certain dangers of vaping, including counterfeit vapes, is a great way to emphasize the health risks for students.
“There’s a ton of vapes that are made with absolutely identical packaging to the real thing, but they use cheap chemicals that have put people in the hospitals or even killed them,” McManus said. “A lot of folks buy counterfeit vapes from corner stores and gas stations, thinking that they’re buying a legitimate product. A lot of store owners think they’re selling the real stuff when they’re not.”
McManus, whose daughter is a rising sixth grader in D97, said he speaks with her “all the time” about these types of issues.
“That leads into a high-impact conversion on the ways that even regular vapes can be really damaging to your body,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s a huge percentage of the Oak Park population but it is enough to be a concern,” Narain said, adding that students who don’t vape are being exposed to it when simply trying to use the bathrooms.
