Vaping is going to be on the outs at North Okanagan-Shuswap schools.
The school district, to become compliant with recent regulatory changes, will now adopt standards that include prohibitions on the use of vapour products at schools.
“The Ministries if Education and Health, in supporting the health and safety of all youth, not the requirement that vapour product use is not allowed at any time on public and private Kindergarten to Grade 12 school sites in British Columbia,” reads a statement to the school district.
Superintendent Glenn Borthistle told the board meeting that the use of vapour products by students is becoming an increasing problem at the senior secondary level. This is enhanced by knowledge that the so-called “vape juice” inhaled from these products may contain the active ingredients found in cigarettes as well as THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
“Of course this has a lot of implications in lots of different settings both from a behavioural and health perspective,” said Borthistle. ‘The difficulty is that there was no set policy, so schools often didn’t have anything to point to in trying to deal with the issue.”
Now the regulations will be amended to include that all school grounds, buildings and vehicles will be non-smoking, non-tobacco and non-vaping, and appropriate signage will be installed to reflect that.
