Ingesting nicotine, and possibly harder drugs, at school is no longer a matter of smoking in the bathroom.

Two parents addressed the Warren County School District board on Monday regarding a drug problem.

Parent Beth Hoffman said there was recently a “discovery of a massive vaping and drug trafficking ring” at one of the district’s high schools.

Parent Megan Lang echoed that, saying there was a “discovery of a rather large drug problem within Warren Area High School.”

Lang said students are using vape cartridges that contain the active ingredient in marijuana. “Children are purchasing these dab cartridges… and they are being used within the school,” she said. “The user takes a dab of the concentrate, giving them an instant high.”

“There are several stores intentionally selling to minors here in the Warren community,” Hoffman said.

The dab cartridges could contain other drugs, Lang said. “These kids… don’t know what they’re hitting or what they’re ingesting when they do it.

Both parents said they understood that the vaping equipment can be difficult to detect, but that they would like to see more action by the district.

“Our children are using drugs at school and it seems nothing is being done about it,” Lang said. “We want answers as to how you are protecting our children.”

Prior to the public comment, Board President Paul Mangione said it was not the board’s practice to open dialog with the public at board meetings – held on the second Monday of each month. The more appropriate venue to interact with the members, according to Board Member Donna Zariczny, is the night of committee meetings held on the last Monday of each month.

While board members did not comment during the meeting, Superintendent Amy Stewart provided information Monday night about vaping in the district and what steps are being taken to limit it.

The district staff is aware that there is a problem and are working with law enforcement personnel.

“I met with the Sheriff and one of our SROs (school resource officers) yesterday,” Stewart said. “They will be providing us with an end-of-year report with data, including data about vaping. We will use that data to inform strategies going into 2022-2023.”

That does not mean that there have not been any steps taken. Part of the plan is to utilize vape-detection equipment.

“We are waiting on the shipment of vape detectors,” Stewart said. “They have been ordered for quite a while and are scheduled to be here and installed this summer.”

With respect to the allegation that local businesses are selling vape products to minors, Stewart said, “Vape technology and producers are ahead of the laws and regulations. The consequences for selling to a minor are not a deterrent for the retailers.”

“If you aren’t familiar with current vape products, do some Googling to see what we are dealing with, she said. “At the onset of vaping, we saw a lot of flavored oils, but we are finding a lot more nicotine and marijuana-based products today.”

“This has moved beyond big puffs of fruity smelling vapor,” Stewart said. “The kids can vape right in front of you, and you would not even know they were doing it. Hoodies, backpacks, pens, phone cases, and watches are a few examples, and as soon as the world catches on to one thing, they create another.”

“We work regularly with the police entities when we are finding THC/dab vapes with marijuana,” she said.

Part of the problem is that there is no unified voice about vaping nor marijuana. “Community and legal system attitudes and opinions about marijuana are quite polarized right now, and students are hearing very mixed messages about the use of marijuana,” she said.

Stewart said the district’s survey data shows vape use is comparatively high, but declining.

“Our PAYS (Pennsylvania Youth Survey) data shows student use of marijuana to be historically higher than the state averages,” she said. “Our PAYS data shows vape use to have decreased from the 2019 survey across all four surveyed grade levels – 6, 8, 10, and 12.”

The parents indicated that they and others are willing to work with the district to help address the problem. They also indicated that they plan to attend future meetings.