CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. (WKBW) — Vape detectors are curbing vaping issues at Maryvale High School because of a device designed to catch vaping teens red handed. Fly Sense Detectors pick up vape smoke. Once the smoke is sensed, they send a text with the location and time of the alert to school staff.
15 of these detectors were installed in bathrooms at the high school. They've caused the number of disciplinary actions linked to vaping to drop.
"Last school year we were in the 30s and this year so far almost halfway through the year we're at five," said high school principal Thomas Stack.
Maryvale Superintendent Joseph D'Angelo said the $12,000 price tag was worth it.
"I don't think you can put a price on student health," said D'Angelo.
"Everybody kind of got an attitude about it and they're like it's not going to work anyway but we wouldn't have spent so much money on them if they weren't going to work," said 16-year-old junior Lindsey O'Hern.
She said these detectors are making a difference.
"Since the vape detectors have been put in less students have been doing it in the bathrooms," O'Hern said.
But high schoolers were able to find a loophole.
"Sometimes the vape detectors don't always pick it up because people can hide it in their sweatshirts and in their shirts and none of the smoke can come out," said O'Hern.
"We understand that we're not going to fully eradicate it, but we severely dented the capacity for that to occur at our school on our watch," Stack said.
