Vape detectors at B.C. high school have reduced students vaping in washrooms, principal says

After just a few months of using vape detectors in a couple of bathrooms, a B.C. high school principal says it's reduced vape use in those areas to basically zero. 

Alen Stel, the principal of Summerland Secondary School in Summerland, B.C., says he was skeptical about the detectors, which look and work similar to smoke or carbon monoxide detectors when they were first pitched to him by his superintendent last fall. 

But he said the problem of students vaping in bathrooms was getting out of hand, and he was desperate to make it stop. 

"It was a serious, I would say almost epidemic issue in our building," Stel told CBC's Radio West host Sarah Penton. 

So, he gave it a go as a pilot project.  

A 2022 survey by Health Canada found that 30 per cent of youth aged 15 to 19 had tried vaping, and about 14 per cent had vaped in the past 30 days. Experts say Canada has some of the highest teen vaping rates in the world. 

In 2023, B.C.'s Ministry of Health launched a campaign in B.C. schools to educate students about the adverse effects of vaping. 

Vaping, according to the ministry, can cause lung damage, and users are exposed to nicotine, which is highly addictive. 

The pilot project, Stel says, was so successful that he hopes to install more detectors in his own school and hopes that other schools consider using them. 

Stel said the detectors cost about $2,000 apiece, so they installed one each in the two bathrooms furthest away from the administration offices, where he said vaping was most prevalent.

When vaping was detected, it triggered an email to school staff. 

Stel said there are also cameras positioned outside those bathrooms so administrators could go back and figure out who the culprit might be. He said the first offence prompted a conversation with the student, and the second and third would mean consequences, which could include suspension. 

"Within, I would say by the end of the month … we weren't seeing any more instances of those reports coming across our email, which sort of shocked both of us, my [vice principal] and myself."

He said the detectors had been set off by kids tampering with them or, in one case, hairspray set it off. But the success of the pilot project has been so encouraging, Stel is looking forward to installing detectors in other bathrooms in the school. 

Stel said the school has written a report for the school board, which he hopes will encourage them to also install detectors in other schools in the district.

"I'm supportive of it," Stel said. 

"It reduces the amount of admin time … chasing kids in a punitive way and the negative relationships that go along with that."

Instead, he says, it gives schools more time to focus on learning. 

"I think that there'll be an appetite for it."