ANGOLA, N.Y. (WKBW) — Lake Shore High School has made changes in an effort to stop vaping during the school day.
According to a study released by the CDC last month, more than 2.5 million middle and high school aged students said they were current e-cigarette users. Almost 85% of them reported using flavored e-cigarettes. The study also found that more than a quarter of middle and high school students used e-cigarettes on a daily basis and over 40% used the, at least 20 out of 30 days.
7 News spoke with one Lake Shore High School senior who said although the issue is only coming to the forefront now, vaping has been an ongoing issue for years. However, the way in which the school is addressing these concerns has changed.
"Lake Shore High School has been locking bathrooms for the last couple of weeks," said Teresa Smaldino, Lake Shore senior. "The only issue with that now is a lot of students aren't able to go to the bathroom because they need special permission to go and they have to walk to the main entrance which causes them to get locked out of the rest of the building. So, they need to wait until they get buzzed back into the building. And even when you go in there, there's still people vaping. It's not ending an issue in anyway, it's just making it more condensed and making people more uncomfortable."
Smaldino said there is only one female restroom and one gender inclusive restroom open to the entire school. While this is a new approach at solving the issue, it's not the first. Smaldino said she's seen students vaping in school bathrooms since she was in middle school.
"Last year when they had to have escorts, escort us to the bathroom," said Smaldino. "That's when it first started kind of coming to light that wow this is an issue, but they haven't really been going about it in the best way possible."
Smaldino said these new rules make her feel like a child again.
"Like a teacher having to hold your hand to go to the bathroom that's just two doors down," said Smaldino. "It just makes you feel dehumanized in a way and makes you feel once again like a little kid. So it just doesn't feel fair as I am almost an adult and a lot of my peers are almost adults, we need to raise our hands, to get our hands held to go and use the restroom."
7 News asked Lake Shore Central School District Superintendent Daniel Pacos for a comment but was told they did not do on camera interviews and would not comment on the matter.
