The vaping epidemic in New Zealand forced all school management officials to respond. These officials managed to install vaping detectors in bathrooms and students to prevent students from vaping. New Zealand citizens were aware of the vaping epidemic that could produce pressure among parents, school managers, and teachers. However, the battle against this vaping epidemic for teenagers continued. As the battle against this teen vaping endemic widened in full scale, parents, schools, and teachers had to direct their attention to the vaping issue on campus.
Lucy, a former Christchurch student, confessed her experience witnessing teens who are vaping inside the bathrooms. As she walked into the bathroom and opened the door, she noticed a cloud of smoke come out. According to Lucy, she could see how her schoolmates puffed the smoke and took deep vape fruits smelling the strong rich scents of flavoured vape juices and loud crackling sounds. For years, she believed that most of her schoolmates were vaping as part of their daily systems.
As well, the issue of e-cigarettes or vaping among teens continued to call for further debates. The problem of vaping could potentially damage all secondary schools in the country. Lucy could see how students rushed to the bathrooms to suck on vaping devices to breathe in the flavoured nicotine during break time and in between. In this case, numerous studies show that the increase in vaping in schools in New Zealand would require immediate attention. For example, one in five students in secondary school was vaping. Despite the banning of vaping, more students continued to vape.
Additionally, the growing concern about vaping created problems among parents, schools, and teachers around the epidemic of teen vaping. The president of the Secondary Principals’ Association of New Zealand (SPANZ), Vaughan Couillault, believed that students would love vaping because it was the cool thing to do. In this case, all schools from socio-economic areas met the same vaping problems.
At some point, Sally, a former head girl at Wellington High School, managed to confirm the worsening vaping problem for years. She acknowledged that all students were vaping inside the bathrooms. She added that she had a hard time dealing with things when she vaped. Because she grew stressed, she leaned on bad habits. With this problem, some school managers took extreme measures to stop students to vape.
Without a doubt, the vaping issue among teens in New Zealand continued to exhibit some concerns. The installation of high-tech hidden detectors in bathrooms could be a good start to prevent vaping at school. The associate professor of the University of Auckland Kelly Burrowes did inform students or vapers regarding the danger of vaping among them. Although students argued that vaping could never be about smoking cigarettes, they failed to think that vaping would always be nicotine.
