Calls for NSW Department of Education to collect data on student vaping

Despite vaping being declared the “number one behavioural issue” for schools there is no way of knowing for certain just how many students are using or selling vapes in the playground.

Teachers and principals are “crying out” for help cracking down on schoolkids vaping in epidemic proportions, but those who can’t afford to install vape detectors have little hope of the government coming to their aid any time soon.

The NSW Department of Education began a “market testing process” in April, issuing an invitation for suppliers to provide 40,000 vape detectors for schools, but nearly four months on a spokesperson has confirmed “decisions around vape detectors have not yet been finalised”.

While some public schools have taken it upon themselves to install detectors without the department’s help, the process can take 18 months and principals have to cut through swathes of red tape.

Australian Medical Association NSW president Dr Michael Bonning said the government must act urgently to get highly addictive vapes out of kids’ hands, without relying on teachers to act as “playground cops”.

“Every day that we wait, every day that we delay, we know that the tobacco lobby is actively trying to … get more and more young people to get that have that first go at a vape, and with that absolutely start them on the pathway to getting hooked on nicotine,” he said.

(File image) Nicotine-free vapes on display at a legal vape shop. Underage students are buying illegal devices in droves, but the exact numbers aren’t clear. Picture: Toby Zerna

Despite vaping being declared the “number one behavioural issue” for schools there is no way of knowing for certain just how many public school students are using or selling vapes at school.

The education department does not collect data on vaping, and while most incidents are managed at the local school level, vaping is “not a mandatory reporting category” and there is no set system-wide punishment for those caught in the act.

Instead, current processes involve engaging support or NSW Police youth liaison officers and “providing advice around potential disciplinary action”.

In the first half of 2022, 580 students received long suspensions of up to 20 days for possession or use of a suspected illegal substance, which includes vapes, 165 fewer students than in the previous year.

However, recent survey data collected by the University of Sydney and Cancer Council’s Generation Vape survey indicates 32 per cent of 14 to 17-year-olds have vaped, and 4 per cent are vaping nearly every day.

Researcher Becky Freeman said it’s not just peer pressure and popular culture driving the “skyrocketing” phenomenon, with an increasing number of kids developing full-blown addictions.

Illegal vapes are incredibly easy for teenagers to obtain, sold in tobacconists and corner shops in every suburb.

“More and more teachers are telling us it’s a major disruption, it’s a high priority, and they’re having to seize products on a weekly basis and more often from their schools, and they’re really crying out for support from the department of education about what they should be doing about it,” she said.

“If it was trendy and cool, it would have been here and gone in a flash. But it’s come and it’s here to stay unless we do something about it.

“It’s a public health emergency, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that.”

Central Coast P & C president Sharryn Brownlee said there’s no excuse for the department not to collect figures for incidents of vaping, because schools already report them voluntarily in their own systems, and called on the department to “flip the switch”.

“How can taxpayers be spending $20 billion on the public education system for it not to be collecting this data?”