Bag checks, pocket searches: Teachers’ association calls for strict crackdown on use of vapes

Calls have been made for mandatory student bag checks and pocket searches to prevent vaping from running wild in schools. Would you support it? Vote in our poll.

Calls have been made for Queensland students to undergo mandatory bag checks and pocket searches in a desperate bid to stop “out of control” vaping at schools.

It comes after a study revealed more than a third of primary school staff members have pupils who use an e-cigarette or similar device, dubbed a vape, and that one in six students received their vape from a parent or guardian.

The usually battery-powered vapes heat up a liquid containing nicotine and flavouring to create a mist, or vapour, designed to be inhaled in a process dubbed ‘vaping’.

Teachers’ Professional Association of Queensland secretary Tracy Tully said vaping was an “out of control” issue in state and private schools and called for strict measures to be enforced.

While e-cigarettes are banned in Queensland schools, the long-serving former principal called for bag checks and pocket searches to be introduced as part of a larger crackdown.

Teachers’ Professional Association of Queensland secretary Tracy Tully called for a bigger crackdown on vaping. Picture: Zak Simmonds

“They should be doing bag checks and pocket searches on entry to schools. It’s not a privacy issue, all the schools would have to do is amend their behavioural management plans,” Ms Tully said.

“These vape instruments are very hard to detect, they can be so easily concealed.

“It’s out of control and it won’t be long before they’re vaping on buses and trains.”

Some Queensland schools have gone to extreme lengths to prevent students experimenting with e-cigarettes including vape detectors and “vape-proof” toilet blocks.

P&Cs Qld chief executive Scott Wiseman said students needed more education on the dangers of vaping rather than a “heavy handed” approach like bag checks and pocket searches.

Mr Wiseman said vaping was a major issue at schools but said the calls were “excessive”.

“There does need to be a deterrent to vaping but it’s also a privacy issue. You don’t want to strip search students,” he said.

“Rather than penalising kids on suspicion, we need to make them more aware of what they’re putting into their bodies.”

Mr Wiseman said one of the biggest issues with e-cigarettes was their accessibility and that they were marketed towards young people.

“Schools do try and discourage it but they’re so readily available. Kids can get them so easily,” he said.

“There needs to be a more broad multi-party arrangements with parents involved in the discussion.”

Queensland Teachers’ Union president Cresta Richardson. Picture: Richard Windeyer

Queensland Teachers' Union president Cresta Richardson said state school educators manage a range of student behavioural issues daily, including vaping.

“Any reasonable person does not want vapes in the hands of children,” she said.

“The union appreciates the essential role parents and caregivers play to ensure these devices aren’t brought to school and students are aware of the dangers of vaping.”

The George Institute for Global Health study, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal, found lunchtime was the most popular time to use a vape for high schoolers, while after and before school were the leading times for primary school children.

A small number of respondents across primary and high schools said students had used vapes in classrooms, but toilets and sports fields were the two most common areas.

University of Southern Queensland exercise physiologist Dean Mills said e-cigarettes contained harmful chemicals which could cause chronic and lasting lung damage.

Dr Mills said the crackdown calls had merit and the findings of the study were likely an “underestimation”.

“Lungs are very fragile and if they’re damaged at an early age it’s gone. The damage can last for the rest of your life,” he said.

Dr Dean Mills is an exercise physiologist at the University of Southern Queensland who specialises in respiratory function. Picture: Supplied

Dr Mills said he was partaking in a world-first study investigating effects of vaping on respiratory function and exercise capacity in young adults.

He said based on early results, adults who used vapes found it more difficult to breathe and could exercise less than they previously did.

A Department of Education spokesman said smoking was banned at all Queensland state and non-state schools and for five metres beyond boundaries.

The spokesman said state schools had strict student code of conducts which listed banned items such as tobacco and e-cigarettes.

“Queensland state school staff already have the authority to temporarily remove student property that disrupts classes, endangers staff or students, is illegal, or being used inappropriately,” he said.

“Principals and school communities are best placed to make decisions about resources that will meet the wellbeing and health needs of their students.”

He said health and wellbeing education, including a focus on alcohol and other drugs, was part of the Australian Curriculum or as part of a school’s pastoral care program.

A public school teacher who has worked in Brisbane, Logan and the Gold Coast for the past decade echoed the association’s calls to introduce bag checks and pocket searches.

The teacher, who cannot be named, said teachers have no power, and the children know it.

“You can request them to open their bag but kids aren’t stupid, they know the score,” the teacher said.

“The ability and power to search and seize needs to be introduced. And principals need to have the ability to suspend students for vaping. It should be treated as drug use.”

The teacher said vaping was an epidemic in Queensland schools.

“It’s everywhere,” the teacher said.

“And because it’s vapour and has no smell, it’s virtually undetectable.”