South Australian Commissioner for Children and Young People releases student vaping survey

Searching schoolbags, dobbing in mates and taking off toilet doors won’t end the school vaping problems, kids say, but they think they know what will.

South Australian schools have adopted the wrong tactics to reduce vaping by students, according to a new survey.

Two out of three South Australian teenagers have told Children and Young People Commissioner Helen Connolly they had used electronic cigarettes at least once.

In a 23-page report, Ms Connolly said only 30 per cent of 950 students aged between 13 to 19 said they had not tried vaping.

However, two thirds believed schools needed to educate young people more about associated health risks, rather than taking punitive action,

This had included removing toilet doors, expelling students caught vaping or selling e-cigarettes and conducting random searches.

Vaping is widespread in SA schools, with two of three students saying they have tried it at least once. Picture: Supplied

“As a result, many young people are feeling misunderstood, shamed, blamed and punished for vaping,” said Ms Connolly in her report.

“They say they lack information, education and support from the adults and institutions around them.”

Ms Connolly said most of the respondents to her survey believed schools had “overreacted and gone too far” with how they had dealt with vaping.

“These respondents felt that an ‘over the top’ approach, even where well-intentioned, was unlikely to be effective in ‘getting the message through’,” she said.

“Indeed, a number of young people expressed concerns that some current responses, particularly those that are punitive, threatening or invasive, were eroding trust between students and staff – and restricting students’ rights to privacy.”

Commissioner for Children and Young People Helen Connolly

Toilet cubicles at Golden Grove High School can be seen from the halls after the removal of external doors. Picture: Supplied

Ms Connolly said students had raised “specific concerns” about school responses that:

RESTRICTED access to school bathrooms, including locking or closing toilets, removing doors or requiring students to sign in and out

LIMITED student privacy, such as searching bags and pockets and proposing to install cameras or smoke detectors in school bathrooms

PUNISHING and excluding students who vaped through detention, suspensions or formal expulsions, and

TRYING to get students to dob on students who were vaping or selling e-cigarettes.

Ms Connolly said students believed these responses would not reduce vaping “because they aren’t based on any understanding around why students vape and how addictive vaping is”.

“In fact, some young people reported that such responses only make young people who vape ‘more cautious and sneakier’,” she said.

Education Minister Blair Boyer said it was “not fair for our teachers and principals to have to police such an issue”.

Mr Boyer said Ms Connolly’s report highlighted the lack of information about the serious side effects and the addictive nature of vaping.

“This is why we need to educate our young people on the health risks but also the legal implications,” he said.

Mr Boyer discussed the results of Ms Connolly’s survey with federal Education Minister Jason Clare and other education ministers on Wednesday.