It’s no doubt that the vaping and bullying epidemics are on the rise. In statistics from stopbullying.gov, 28% of grade 6-12 students admit they have been bullied and only 20%-30% of those confide in an adult.
In separate statistics from drugabuse.gov, 7 out of 10 teens are exposed to vaping and e-cig advertising. Of those that do try vaping, 66% think that the vapor is just flavoring and more than 30% will start smoking within 6 months.
A large driver for Vigilance is our mission to help schools keep their kids safe. Vigilance was onsite May 29th, 2019 at MSAD 6 speaking about the dangers of vaping and bullying and letting attendees know what they could do to combat the problems. In attendance were school officials consisting of Superintendents, IT Directors, Principals, and Assistant Principals.
Vigilance had detection/notification solutions for vaping, including standard spot detection, laser view detection, Xtralis Vesda Aspiration Detection, and the Halo by IPVCorp.
In addition, they also had scream detection solutions from Talkaphone, and IPVCorp (the Halo detects both vaping and screaming).
Vigilance Software CEO, Jason Roberts, said that both vaping and bullying were continuous and serious issues at all the schools’ Vigilance helps to protect and felt strongly that the informational session would benefit the customer.
“We showed the customer 3 vape technologies and 2 bully technologies all integrated to Vigilance,” he said. “We compared the pros and cons of all the technologies.” Norris (Vigilance parent company) life-safety and security experts then helped the customer understand and decide what the right fit was.
“It is a hot topic amongst schools right now, they are truly concerned about student safety,” Roberts said.
MSAD 6 Technology Director Scott Nason said the problem wasn’t going away.
“The challenges of protecting students within the walls of our buildings are always changing. A few years ago, student encounters in hallways were a problem, so we installed video cameras to assist in the monitoring of the hallways. Those encounters moved outside the building, so we installed cameras outside. While we have not eliminated all of those issues, we have reduced them,” Jason said. “The present-day challenges are what’s happening in student bathrooms and locker rooms–two areas that are very difficult to monitor. Students could be vaping in the bathrooms or bullying other students and staff may never know because of the inability to supervise every bathroom and locker room every minute of the school day.”
He said the visit from Vigilance and Norris was very helpful.
“Today’s presentation of 4 different technologies that could be used in bathrooms and locker rooms was very eye-opening. Combined with the integration of Vigilance, we were given some options and strategies to help with the monitoring of these problematic areas for vape detection,” he said. “These technologies are going to become necessary pieces of a school’s infrastructure in the near future.”
