In an effort to deter students from vaping, Mesa Public Schools, Arizona’s largest school district, put vape sensors in all of its middle and high school bathrooms.
“When I hear students tell me they don’t feel safe going into a bathroom, that really bothers me. They should feel safe at school and they should be able to go to the bathroom without worrying what's going on in the bathroom,” said Allen Moore, the district’s safety and security director. Moore, and other school administration, said they’ve heard complaints of students vaping in bathrooms.
The district piloted the program at Red Mountain High School late last school year, saying they saw success with it. School leaders then decided to expand the program and over the summer, they installed them in all secondary school bathrooms.
Jason Grantham, an assistant principal at Red Mountain High School, said they’ve seen the number of alerts go down recently. While they tested it out only in very few bathrooms last school year, students are aware that there are sensors.
“It definitely has been a deterrent,” he said.
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Typically, on a Mesa school campus, there are school security guards or administration monitoring cameras, including ones outside of bathrooms. If the sensor detects the chemicals that come from a vape, it will alert staff and turn red.
At that point, administration can dispatch security to that bathroom and talk with the student(s) when they walk out.
Moore said the sensors do not record audio nor do they record video. The sensors can just detect chemicals from vapes.
“The whole purpose is to try to deter it. To be honest with you, I don’t really want to catch anybody. I want the message to get out there that we put vape sensors in our bathrooms because we don’t want you to vape in our bathrooms,” Moore said. “It would be awesome if one day we get reports where nobody is vaping in our bathrooms.”
In 2023, according to the National Youth Tabacco Survey, more than 2.1 million students used e-cigarettes, also known as vapes. There are some vapes that have THC, which if students are caught with that on campus, Mesa police school resource officers get involved as it is illegal for minors to be in possession. Students who are in possession of a vape also go through the district’s discipline matrix which could involve suspension.
“It is a problem. Not just a problem here, it's a problem everywhere. Giving our kids the best chance at that point, ultimately, is why we support it. It's been successful for us,” Grantham said of trying to deter vaping.
MPS is not the only district using the sensors, there are several others, including Peoria Unified that have them .
When asked if they’d roll out to elementary schools, Moore said not at this time but possibly down the road.
“We have 11, 12-year-olds who have been caught with vapes,” he added.
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