The use of tobacco and nicotine related products has become a major issue on school campuses across the nation. In an effort to stop vapers from risking their health and education, Principal Brian Blasewitz and School Resource Officer Anthony Gentile will be enforcing a new Seminole County law prohibiting the possession or use of tobacco or vaping products on campus.

“I have always had an issue with some of the interventions we put into place for students who get caught either in possession of a vaping device or get caught actually vaping on campus,” Blasewitz said. “Although I have always believed that we needed to send a strong message to these students with regard to how harmful vaping could potentially be to them and how wrong it is to do on a school campus, I wasn’t always convinced that we were sending the correct message with OSS [out of school suspension].”

Between the times of 6 a.m. and midnight, juveniles under the age of 18 who are vaping on or within 1,000 feet of a public or private elementary, middle or high school, will be given a citation and charged with a noncriminal violation, and options on how to follow through the penalties. With repeated offenses, these penalties become more extreme.

“Typically, the intervention is to remove them [students who violated the policy] from campus (in the form of an out of school suspension); removing them from the learning environment and causing them to fall further behind in their coursework,” Blasewitz said. 

With this new policy in action, students under the age of 18 who violate this new measure will result in a civil infraction rather than criminal. This allows students to continue their education without hindrances or disturbances.

“I believe the effects of nicotine are very harmful to the students’ body,” sophomore Isaac Abdelmessih said. “It’s harmful to anyone’s body but if you look at it with a younger body, it’ll have the long term effects on the student and their lungs. I don’t believe they understand that vaping hurts them until the rules are put in.”

Unless the given options to complete the penalties are ignored, noncriminal violations do not require a court appearance, giving students the choice of community service, anti-tobacco program completion, the payment of $30, and/or other penalties depending on the severity of the offense.

  “While this [vaping] may be perfectly acceptable to them and their families, our campus is not an appropriate venue for it,” Blasewitz said. “Our job as educators is to educate, and there is just so much unknown with regard to the short and long term effects of vaping on our bodies.”