Students collapse after vaping at school as teachers battle to help students

A Sydney father posed as his daughter online in a desperate bid to catch a fellow student who was dealing vapes as school. The undercover operation is one incident in a new dossier on vaping incidents in NSW public schools.

A female student had a seizure and was rushed to hospital after using a vape while a male student who also used a vape at another school collapsed and “struggled to breathe”.

These are just two of dozens of incident reports seen by The Saturday Telegraph that show vaping has exploded in use, with teachers reporting students using them in the classroom, toilets or selling them in the playground.

Some of the 65 reports made by principals to the Education Department Incident Report and Support Hotline last year included primary schools where students have been caught with the devices – or in one case – blatantly “sucking on it in front of staff, students and community members in the school hall”.

The reports paint a sobering picture of the battle facing school staff to stamp out the scourge, with principals engaging with parents, NSW Health, police, youth liaison officers and school counsellors to tackle the problem.

SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM TO SEE ALL THE INCIDENTS

Vaping is exploding in popularity across schools in NSW.

At the extreme end, students are also being suspended or placed on behaviour support plans.

And it is not just teachers struggling to stop students from vaping – the reports show how parents also battling the scourge, with one desperate dad pretending to be his daughter on social media to catch out her friend trying to sell her vapes.

The state government has pledged to help schools fight the epidemic with a review underway in how schools report, manage and address drug issues, including vaping – and will include input from Cancer Council NSW and other key stakeholders.

The department is also working with other government agencies in addressing vaping by educating students and their parents or carers on the dangers of e-cigarettes.

Prue Car says vaping is an increasing worry for parents. Picture NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Education Minister Prue Car said students will be enlisted to help devise the proposed education campaign to spread the message about the potential harms vaping poses, as the government considered other tactics such as the use of vaping detectors in schools.

“Schools and parents are struggling with how to deal with vaping. It is a community-wide problem that we are addressing head-on,” Ms Car said.

“I have committed to work with my colleague – Minister for Health Ryan Park – on an education campaign that will spell out the harms posed by vaping and we will involve kids in developing it.

“We are looking at vaping detectors as a potential solution. If government and the community work together then we can beat this scourge.”

Vaping is already part of the Personal Development, Health and Physical Education K-10 syllabus and the Life Ready course for senior students.

Describing it a “dangerous habit”, Mr Park said vaping posed potentially long-lasting impacts on the developing brain of a child.

“We know vaping puts young people at risk of lifelong health issues, which includes long-lasting impacts on their developing brains,” he said.

Federally, Health Minister Mark Butler has declared his own war on vapes, declaring it to be “the number one behavioural issue in high schools” in a speech he delivered in May.

The comment followed a Cancer Council survey that found one in three teenagers had tried vaping, with more than half of those trying a vape for the first time being under the age of 16.

As schools are not mandated to report vaping incidents, the number of reports made to the department only captures the more extreme events where there has been a ­medical episode or students have been involved in other behaviours such as selling vapes, absenteeism or congregating in designated areas such as toilets.

These government department reports do not capture the many vaping incidents also occurring in Catholic or private schools.

Originally published as Students collapse after vaping at school as teachers battle to help students