By: Kianna Cheuk, Staff Writer
Is there a vaping problem here at Mills? To be frank I’m not sure myself. I’m not exposed to this type of “extracurricular” activity here at Mills, but it does seem prominent in our small community from what I’ve heard from my peers. Administration has taken a huge step in the world of vaping exposure, letting all of those know the side effects of doing such. Those who aren’t very aware of vaping like me are for the most part informed through our lovely health classes.
From what I have seen through my three years at Mills, administration has done the best that they could on the subject. Perhaps they have not done enough however, as the only time we discussed the topic was through one source, health class. Although, Dean Christian did state how it was one the things that we are not allowed to bring to school during one of our many assemblies earlier in the school year. I feel more action should be taken if they really wanted this epidemic to stop, at least within the Mills community.
As stated earlier, the health class curriculum touches upon vaping and the side effects of it to one’s body. Unfortunately, most of my knowledge around what we learned in freshman year of health class revolved around STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections) and how we shouldn’t force someone to have tea (everyone should know this phrase by now). Thinking a little further back to health class, I vaguely remember seeing pictures of lungs and how vaping impacts the body. At the time however, I didn’t really care.
Some may say that vaping is cool and that’s why kids do it, but I’m not too sure. Of course every time an adult says that to us teens, our first reaction is to rebel against their teachings. Still, at the same time, most people do not care if their friends are vaping or not. For instance, if I see my friend vaping I would not think “wow they are so cool, I wish I was them.” Instead I might say to myself “oh I didn’t know they vaped” and move along with my day. I know administration is trying their best to rid of these “vape gods” but they are also far too busy worrying about other pressing matters.
Administration is trying their best to handle the vaping epidemic, but it just might not be enough. In this situation, curiosity does kill the cat and if there’s a will, there’s a way. If administration really wants vaping to stop, their top priority is getting students to understand why it is a problem.. How you might ask how to carry this out, is a challenge within itself.
