Schools in our area have been working to crack down on a tremendous problem, vaping.
Clarke county is the newest school system to implement a five-week program for students caught vaping, on campus.
Clarke county's superintendent said they partnered with Mobile's Drug Education Council to have students go through the Chemical Abuse Prevention Program. If a student is caught vaping, they'll have to attend this program once a week for five weeks with their guardian. They also have to pay $50 upfront. That money goes directly to the Drug Education Council. If they fail to attend the first class or any class for that matter, they're suspended.
"How bad is it in Clarke county?" NBC 15's Lisa Librenjak asked.
"Well, right now it's not too bad but we wanted to get ahead of it a little bit because every year we see just a few more, we're finding a lot of repeat offenders," Clarke County Superintendent of Education Larry Bagley said. "I got tired of just sending children home and bringing them back."
Clarke County Public Schools has about 2,300 students and right now, Bagley said it appears the middle school students are the biggest vape users.
"The 7th, 8th grade...getting started," Bagley said.
The program is just getting started in Clarke county. So far, two students have been caught vaping since the board adopted the program in January. They will soon attend the after school session for five weeks. The Executive Director of the Drug Education Council, Virginia Guy, said this program is a successful one.
"The child and the parent, in fact the entire family, it doesn't have to be just one parent," Guy said. "The entire family can come. It's an educational family strengthening program. It talks a lot about family communications, ways to set rules, maintain them, and keep them and then just a lot of education about why this is dangerous."
If a student is caught vaping or is even caught with a vape but not using it, they'll have to attend the program that kicks off in about two weeks at the Thomasville Civic Center. If that student doesn't show up with their guardian, schools will revert to its suspension policies to deal with the issue.