There is a serious problem concerning vaping at Granville High School. We cannot enter a single one of the five restrooms around the building without being greeted by a gaggle of our peers and a massive plume of vape smoke.

Not only does the vape smoke smell disgusting (a mix of skunk spray and overly-sweet grape soda), but the large masses of students are unbearable for anyone with any desire of relieving their bodily functions without being late to class. In the boys restrooms, in particular, the mobs fill up from the trashcan on one side to the stalls on the other, creating an interesting situation where the restroom has lost all practicality.

Presented with this issue, it is the best bet for a student to just go back to class and wait to go to the bathroom during the instruction period. However, many students are faced with the same question: “Why didn’t you go between classes? You have four minutes!”

For us, this issue is not about rules. Obviously, the people who are vaping in the bathroom are doing so while knowing that they are not supposed to. We are not concerned with punishment over this. We are concerned for the students who find themselves in a situation similar to the ones the Blue Ace Media Staff have found themselves in over the school year, particularly in the last few months.

To give credit where credit’s due, a lot more has been done under the radar by administration than students may realize. According to Mr. Hinton, whenever he receives a Schoology message or email concerning a possible vape situation in the bathrooms, he or Mrs. Beach will place themselves in the area as soon as possible. We’re sure that the majority of students have noticed Mr. Hinton’s new rolling cart, a development he put in place as a measure to both get work done on the move and to keep an eye on sensitive areas like bathrooms.

We recognize that school administration has been doing quite a lot to face the vaping epidemic head-on. However, we still believe that more could be done to ensure the school is as safe as it can be for all students.

Currently, if a student were to want to alert a teacher of a vaping situation in the bathroom, they would have to exit the room, go into another classroom, talk to the teacher in private and then point them in the right direction of whatever was going on. This long chain of exchanges and pointed fingers are snitch allegations waiting to happen. Along with that, it is neither convenient for the student body or the staff.

As mentioned before, students are able to email Mr. Hinton and Mrs. Beach about a possible vaping situation unfolding in the bathroom. However, if they were to do so, they would have to wait until they return to class to draft said message, possibly after the vaping session has already wrapped up.

This issue is sticky, we recognize that. But we believe that this issue deserves even more effort and attention than it is receiving at this point. At the root of the issue, we know that there is little we can do to change the fact that teens are able to purchase vapes at businesses that are checking IDs. That is a problem for the police and local government to solve. What we can do is change what is happening here at GHS. And that will take the effort of everyone in the building, including students.

Teachers . . .

Our ask of you is incredibly important but we recognize that it could be unpopular. It is our opinion that some kind of teacher or staff member needs to stand outside of the bathrooms during each passing period.

As a group that has seen the vaping epidemic first-hand, we find ourselves quite qualified in saying that half of the draw to taking a puff between classes is the social engagement. If there were a teacher standing directly outside the bathroom, there would be a much greater sense of paranoia associated with the formation of the vape mobs that have become commonplace.

Not only are these mobs large, but they are also loud. We would suppose it very difficult to have a smoke session with ten to fifteen people without bringing up a commotion loud enough to get a nearby staff member to notice. On top of that, it would also make it a lot easier for a student who is upset with the situation to quickly and covertly alert the teacher if any kind of situation were unfolding inside.

Administration . . .

Like we said above, the main resistance to vaping has been coming from you. We believe that you have been doing essentially everything you can to fight this problem with the cards you have been dealt. The room for growth, in our opinion, is in an area you have already been working on. Visibility. We’re sure that every student has the knowledge that sending an email or Schoology message to you is possible. However, the act of sending these messages doesn’t seem to come across as encouraged. The student body recognizes that administration has a lot on their plate, and many of us see an email about someone vaping as just another item on your impossibly long to-do list. However, after speaking with you about this issue, we recognize that vaping is of paramount importance to the administration here. If we as students were to be better informed of the genuine concern administration has for our health, we believe that a lot more students would come forward, helping this issue come to a close.

In media, principals and assistant principals are often depicted as hard-nosed villains. The Breakfast Club, Ferris Buehler’s Day Off, and even Captain Underpants reinforce this stereotype. Unfortunately, this idea has seemed to rub off onto the students here at GHS. We as a staff know that Mr. Hinton doesn’t actively enjoy punishing students as Mr. Krupp does in Captain Underpants, but to the rest of the student body, it may come across that way. We ask you to follow the idea we established earlier. Make it more known that you’re fighting vapes not just for the sake of enforcing rules, but also for the safety and health of the students here.

We believe that a close administration-student body relationship is possible. It has already been getting better over the past couple of years. To put it simply, our request is for you to make it known that you’re on our side.

Counselors . . .

While we understand that the situation is complicated and that your hands are tied if a student comes to you admitting they have a vaping addiction, we also believe that posters in the bathrooms are not enough support. Even if you can’t easily support a student facing vaping addiction yourselves, guiding them in the right direction to resources to help them stop is imperative. Having a container of pamphlets or resources clearly and obviously displayed could be very beneficial to the students that know they have a problem but are scared to speak face-to-face with you about it. In our opinion, the most important step in stopping vaping is removing the stigma from asking for help, and that starts with you.

Students . . .

We urge those of you who might be reading this and struggle with addiction to take that first step in looking for help. We understand that these addictions often stem from social pressure or as a coping mechanism for difficult things happening within one’s own life. In order to get over an addiction that comes from problems like these, it is imperative to find help from supportive adults. We believe that addiction will likely never subside if the root problem still remains.

To stop the stigma of asking for help, no meaningful change can ever occur if there is such an air of shame. We urge friends of people who partake in vaping to reach out and try and help them. While it might seem scary to tell a counselor or trusted adult about a friend who is struggling, we as a staff agree that it is truly one of the best things that can be done as a friend.

Our last request for all of us students is simple: if you are frustrated with the vaping issue or even any other issues in the building, you need to go to Mr. Hinton or other members of the administration. They are unable to take action if they don’t know about the problems occurring. They aren’t evil caricatures that want you to have endless homework and nasty lunches. They’re real people and they care about our safety.

In closing

At the end of the day, our message is in support of what is best for both the non-vapers and the vapers at Granville High School. We as a student body and as a community need to do better to alleviate this pressing issue. The health effects of vaping are still quite unclear, with most (if not all) studies pointing in the direction that they are incredibly bad for us, possibly even worse than cigarettes.

Our school has encountered a multitude of different challenges over the years, and we have faced them all with a good perspective and approach. This issue is different, however. There are so many different aspects at play that it seems almost impossible to face. However, we know that this issue can be faced in the same way as the ones in our past, with grace and care. Let’s start making a change, for the sake of both the students troubled by the activity and the ones risking their health over it.