‘Vaping’ is ‘everywhere’ in schools – sparking bathroom surveillance boom

It’s the creeping oversight that gives some students pause, even those who told The 74 they would otherwise support steam detectors in bathrooms. The possibility of unknown capabilities with sensors is “pretty scary” to me, said Moldina, an Austin teenager who worries about a future where bathrooms come with cameras.

“Just knowing there’s fumes in the bathroom doesn’t really help you, because managers already know it’s going to happen, and just knowing that isn’t going to help them figure out who’s doing it,” he said. “So my concern is that at the end of the day, we’re going to have cameras in the bathroom, which is definitely not what we want.”

Minneapolis teachers used surveillance cameras with sensors to identify students in the bathroom, discipline reports show.

In February, for example, a Roosevelt High School student was suspended for a day for lighting a weed vaporizer in the bathroom. Authorities reviewed CCTV footage outside the bathroom and found the student entering and exiting the bathroom during the time the detector went off. They were searched and officers found “a marijuana vape, an empty weed-scented glass jar, and a baggie with weed shake in it.”

That same month, teachers referred a Camden High School student to a drug and alcohol counselor for “fermenting in a single-stall bathroom.”

After I check the camera it shows [a] University officials reported that the student was leaving the stall’s bathroom.

Gutierrez, an 18-year-old from Arizona, said she quit smoking after her suspension and now copes with depression through positive tools like painting. What he didn’t do, however, was quit because he got help at school for the mental health challenges that drove him to smoke in the first place.

He said that while he was suspended, he refused to vomit because he was away from his friends and had no access to him. Gutierrez remembers being intimidated by online lessons that portrayed vaping as a big, grumpy purple monster that would poison her relationships.

“Yes I stopped, but it wasn’t a good stop,” he said. “I didn’t get any support. I didn’t get any counseling. I stopped because I was scared.”