Paxon-Buckley-Loda High School curbing vape usage with new vape detector

PAXTON, Ill. (WAND) — Vaping has become popular for teenagers recently, but Paxton-Buckley-Loda High School is hoping to prevent students from using the devices during school hours.

"We recognized something that has been going on not just in our school across the area, across the state, across the country with these vaping devices," said Dean of Students, Brock Niebuhr.

Since adding vape detectors in bathrooms at the beginning of the school year, the school has confiscated nearly 30 vapes, and some even contain more than just nicotine.

"Some of our vapes, we work with our SRO again this is out of an abundance of concern and safety for our students, and so some of them we have sent for testing and some of them do contain substances other than nicotine in them" said Principal, Hannah Eshleman.

But the device does seem to do its job. Eshleman said they went from receiving alerts multiple times a week to maybe once a month.

"Our vape detectors can detect the amount of vape in the air, and they send an alert to our phones and to our emails," said Eshleman.

The school wants students and parents to know this is strictly for the health and safety of students.