TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas officials want to put the brakes on vaping in public schools.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the Kansas State Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to launch an anti-vaping campaign.
Officials say local school boards need to amend student codes of conduct and district disciplinary policy to outline sanctions for those caught vaping. The state board also agreed to formalize and expand an ad-hoc task force that recommended swift action to dampen demand by youths for the sweet-flavored alternative to smoking.
Randy Watson, commissioner of the Kansas State Department of Education, said estimates that half of students in Kansas high school were involved in vaping justified an aggressive statewide response. It amounts to a public health epidemic, he told the Capital Journal.
Addison Schlatter, a junior at the University of Kansas and a member of the state education boards working group on vaping, said about 50 percent of students at her high school engaged in vaping. She said it was common for college students to make use of the devices capable of generating a nicotine hit exceeding that of a typical cigarette.
I think students know more than the rest of us, said state board member Jim Porter, who suggested many adults wouldnt know what to do with a vape pen.
The state board ought to be a partner with the attorney generals office and other organizations in development of legislation capable of fighting the vaping menace, said Porter, of Fredonia.
It is against Kansas law for people under 18 to purchase or possess cigarettes, and state statute defines e-cigarettes as tobacco products. Some municipal jurisdictions, including Iola, have adopted a minimum age of 21 for those purchases.
