SAN ANTONIO — E-cigarette and vape pens are becoming all too common on school campuses. District officers say it’s a growing crisis.

What You Need To Know

  • School police say there has been a dramatic uptick in e-cigarette and vape use among Texas students 

  • Northside ISD Police Chief Charlie Carnes said middle and high school students are increasingly using the products

  • During the last legislative session, lawmakers passed House Bill 114, which could land students in alternative school for possession of e-cigarettes.

  • Liz Pray, the Washington state director of the National Association of School Nurses, says the products affect the lungs and brain development

Once a Northside ISD student, Northside ISD Police Chief Charlie Carnes has been with the department for 30 years.

From dispatch, his team monitors thousands of campus cameras. But in San Antonio’s largest school district, the growing a concern around e-cigarettes has become hard to tackle.

“Increase in vaping for the past couple of years,” Chief Carnes said. 

He said students in middle and high school are using e-cigarettes. They’ve also been found on elementary campuses.

“We have parents that come to us and they bring us a vape pen and they have no knowledge as to what it is,” Chief Carnes said.

Although marijuana has always been around, Carnes says vapes can conceal the smell. The department plans to test out vaping sensors in school restrooms.

“Two years ago we averaged about 40 cases a month, to include nicotine and THC,” Chief Carnes said. “Now we see approaching 300 cases a month.”

Last session, lawmakers passed House Bill 114, which could land students in alternative school for possession of e-cigarettes.

“Our parents need to be educated as well as our students need to be educated on the seriousness of it,” Chief Carnes said. “Not just the health complications, but the legal complications that it presents.”

In Texas, having a THC vape pen is a felony.

“I think they are more harmful than your typical cigarettes,” said Liz Pray, the Washington state director of the National Association of School Nurses.

Pray says the concentration of nicotine in e-cigarettes is much higher than traditional cigarettes.

“These e-cigarettes are affecting brain development,” Pray said. “They are affecting the lungs. I just don’t think that we’ve seen all of the long-term effects yet.”

As the school year starts, Pray said it’s important for parents to have the tough conversations with their kids. So is eliminating their access to vape products at home.

“It’s very easy to pick up one of these vape pens and sneak it outside or sneak it to school and use it yourself,” Pray said.

A recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study shows that from 2020 to 2022, U.S. e-cigarette sales increased by 47%. To help stop this crisis, health advocates want the FDA to take flavored e-cigarettes off the market.

“Students, they get peer pressured into vaping,” Chief Carnes said. “They need the support of their families and loved ones not to vape.”

House Bill 114 could get a child expelled for possession on school grounds. That law goes into effect Sept. 1.