Vaping: Education Minister Sarah Mitchell calls for parents to stop kids bringing vapes to school

Young people are accessing illegal vapes on the black market, with dealers buying stock from overseas and selling to kids via social media platforms such as Snapchat.

Schools are taking extreme measures to try and stop kids vaping, as NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell warned it was an increasing problem.

She also called for parents to do more to stop their children bringing vapes to school and said being caught with one was serious.

“Anecdotally, schools are seeing a rise in students accessing e-cigarettes,” she said.

“Principals and teachers are handling these cases appropriately with strong disciplinary action and informing the student’s parents or carers.

Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning Sarah Mitchell has issued a warning about vaping in schools. NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

“Students must realise that vaping at school is extremely serious. It’s considered a drug and the disciplinary actions are severe.

“Vapes are not the healthy alternative, they contain highly addictive nicotine as well as other toxic chemicals. My message to students is simple – don’t do it.”

Ms Mitchell added that as a community everyone must work hard to ensure that vapes are not being sold to under-age people.

Young people say they are accessing the illegal vapes on the black market, with dealers buying stock from overseas and selling them to kids via social media platforms such as Snapchat, making hundreds of dollars, if not more, a week.

Kids they sell them onto friends in the playground.

Disposable e-cigarettes that look like USB drives and come in a variety of flavours are the latest dangerous craze in schools. Picture: Supplied.

“As parents, it’s also important that we keep an eye on what our children are buying or might have access to,” she said.

“If any parents are concerned about their child being influenced to vape while at school, they should contact the principal.”

The Education Minister’s warning comes as educators say that schools are going to extreme measures to stop kids vaping on their premises, with some locking toilet blocks during the day, only allowing kids access if they sign in and out.

The mini vapes are about the size of a USB thumb nail, create little to no vapour or smell which makes it difficult for teachers to spot.

A vape compared with a highlighter pen. Picture: Instagram

Some of the vapes children are using contain extremely high amounts of nicotine, as much as 250 cigarettes in one tiny device.

Vapes that come prefilled with nicotine are illegal in Australia full stop. It is illegal for a child to be in possession of any vape, whether it contains nicotine or not.

President of the NSW Principals’ Council Craig Petersen told NewsLocal that he had no hard statistics but anecdotally he was hearing from principals that it was widespread across the Sydney metro area.

He said one school on Sydney’s northern beaches reported last year that it was a big problem with Year 8 girls.

E-cigarettes containing nicotine are illegal. Photo: Robyne Cuerel.

“Vapes seem to have come out of the blue and have been very quickly adopted by a large number of kids,” Mr Petersen said.

“Teachers are doing their best at trying to monitor what is happening in the playground and in the toilets.”

Mr Petersen said schools were all taking individual approaches, but many were opting to include health awareness and dangers of vaping as part of their health education programs, as well as sending letters back to the parents.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard at a recent press conference. Picture: Richard Dobson

Health Minister Brad Hazzard warned that from a health perspective “vaping is just plain dangerous”.

He said a respiratory researcher had told him the chemicals in vapes were similar to the antifreeze you find in your car and to inhale that was just “plain insane”.

He said while vapes may help some people quit smoking, he was increasingly concerned that it can “act as an entry point for smoking”, especially as the devices are obviously marketed at kids coming in bright colours and different sweet flavours.